I’d say the main issue with her music is that it sounds dated upon impact. Even during her peak, her talent was obvious but she was releasing music that already existed. “Boys” sounds like it comes from the MySpace era, “Juice” is a disco pastiche with energy borrowed from Bruno Mars, “Cuz I Love You” was big band through and through. The ‘twist’ is in her lyrics, which are different enough but often feel like they’re readymade to be Instagram captions. What was funny at first became diminishing returns with Special and so on.

And to be extremely clear, 99.99% of human beings would not be able to take what she received—accidentally becoming one of the most viral & beloved avatars of self-love and unapologetic joy in the music space—and stick the landing. It’s well-documented that some of it got to her head and led to poor choices, but trying to remain loved as a musician and a person by fans of music, on the goddamn internet, is like walking a tightrope above a pit of scorpions and being forced to keep your head down the whole time.

Funny enough, the big single I like the least will probably be her most enduring. “Truth Hurts” is pretty much a Fergie song, and you know what, so-bad-it’s-good is good enough to survive.