When Brooklyn-via-Argentina singer-songwriter Tei Shi (Valerie Teicher) released her critically acclaimed debut album Crawl Space in March this year, many critics pointed out the noteworthy use of spoken word cassette player recordings of Teicher as a child on the album's two interludes, "Bad Singer" and "Bad Girl". On the former, a young and unsure Teicher berates herself for failing to live up to the standards set by a notable 90s teen pop sensation: "I'm a bad singer. Can't do anything well. I think I sing so great... but I really never do anything right ... I just hope one day I can be like Britney Spears." On the latter, Teicher reveals that she had once set her sights on a global audience even while acknowledging her insecurities: "I just want you to hear this, everybody else in the world: I'm a bad singer! I confess it. And I'm a hell of a bad girl".
Her latest music video for "Say You Do", the album's seventh track, sandwiches the track between the two interludes. The song itself serves more as an homage to the uplifting R&B tracks of the 90s, but Teicher channels Spears' energetic choreography in the music video with the help of a quartet of 'clones' (the shiny red leather thigh-high boots she wears is also reminiscent of Spears' iconic red bodysuit). The song also attempts to emulate the earworm-y accessibility (and inescapability) of Spears' best pop hits: "It’s definitely the catchiest and best pop song that I’ve written. In some ways, I knew it didn’t really fit but it’s a statement to myself: I can do this; I can make a pop song that’s immediately translatable to a lot of people because it’s catchy and the message is pretty relatable" (DIY).
The essence of the song is simple and perfectly relatable; Teicher soul-searches her way out of a relationship with a cocksure lover ('You don't know me like you say you do/ You see it too/No, no, no, baby') to arrive at a newfound state of confidence and self-determination. And yet, even in her Britney-est moment, one cannot escape the realization that Tei Shi's artistry is rooted in a searing vulnerability that is at-odds with Spears' long history of relying on the ecstatic, hedonic, and crowd-pleasing sexpot persona.
The gleaming irony, of course, is that Teicher's proven vocal prowess means that no critic would accuse her of being a 'bad singer'. But perhaps you don't know her like you think you do if you only see her as an indie darling. Teicher may not be there just yet, but she seems to be aiming for the greater audience - and earnings and fame - that critical acclaim alone cannot provide. As she revealed to NPR, the critics and fans who attempt to delineate the boundaries of her artistry are now the song's main addressee: "There's this idea that if you change, or evolve, or dare to be complicated, you're in authentic, but I'm a chameleon, I'm always evolving. There's power in saying, 'I have many versions of myself and I can tap into whatever I want'".
