Track Review: Marie Davidson’s ‘Your Biggest Fan’

Music is quite contradictory: While it’s created as a vessel for self-expression, an artist’s fans usually have the final say in the accepted meaning of the work. This often amounts to nothing more than minor lyrical misinterpretation, but if left unaddressed can potentially lead to an inaccurate perception of the artist behind the music.

Take Marie Davidson for example. An electronic musician known primarily for her 2016 album, Adieux au Dancefloor,  she explores the “stresses and strains” of this artisst paradox with quiet intensity on “Your Biggest Fan,” the opening track of her most recent project, Working Class Woman.

Questions such as “what is it about you?” and “why are you so strange?” are insensitive by anyone’s standards, but are the sort of inquiries artists face on a regular basis.

But, why?

Hypothetically, there are thousands of reasons, but perhaps the most endearing of them is that an artist’s fans want to better understand the person behind the music.

Davidson later mocks that whole situation.

As she sings, there is nothing “dreamlike” about constantly being badgered for drugs or the address to the afterparty. In fact, questions like these only further pre-existing stereotypes within the music industry and drive many to believe that is the reality, as Davidson suggests in the last few moments of “Your Biggest Fan.”

In an era that places too much value on the ability to live and thrive in excess, Davidson would like to remind us that for many artists, music is simply a way to let off some steam.

“Your Biggest Fan” is haunting, raw, insightful, but more importantly, human.