Paris-based provocateur Sam Quealy returns with JAWBREAKER, a sophomore record that sharpens every edge introduced on her 2023 debut Blonde Venus. If that first album was about discovery, JAWBREAKER is about declaration. It’s louder, brasher, more emotionally volatile, and far more intentional.
Quealy has described her sound as “electro-pop and techno-pop trash with badass, don’t-give-a-fuck energy,” and JAWBREAKER delivers exactly that, but with craft beneath the chaos. Sonically, it pulses with ’80s and ’90s DNA, disco strings, Eurodance propulsion, new wave shimmer, yet never feels trapped in nostalgia. Instead, it refracts those influences through a hyper-modern lens, creating something glossy but dangerous. Sweet on impact, serrated underneath.
Created in Paris with longtime collaborator Marlon Magnée of La Femme, and partially recorded at the legendary Studio Ferber, the album expands Quealy’s palette. The production leans into lush string flourishes and euphoric club-ready builds, but it also leaves room for theatrical restraint. It’s maximalist pop with moments of exposed nerve.
Opening track “LONDONTOWN” sets the emotional tone: nostalgic and yearning, tracing childhood fantasies against adult disillusionment. From there, the record swerves confidently between glitter and grit. “STARLIGHT” radiates hope with shimmering synths, while “SAY MY NAME” feels intimate and hypnotic, its vulnerability wrapped in velvet production. “LOVE LASSO” leans into romantic chaos, tension coiling beneath its dance-floor gloss.
Lead single “GIRLS NIGHT” is pure catharsis, a champagne-slick celebration of reckless joy, while “PUSSY POWER” flips the narrative toward unapologetic self-possession. “FLYING SOLO” is all spine and clarity, a breakup anthem that trades heartbreak for autonomy. Then comes “STRINGS OF TERROR,” one of the album’s boldest turns: eerie violins and cinematic tension nod to Hitchcock and Tim Burton, pushing Quealy’s pop theatrics into darker territory.
The venomous title track “JAWBREAKER” is the album’s thesis statement, sharp, confrontational, and unafraid to cut ties. Yet just when the record threatens to remain all bite, it softens. “BY MY SIDE” glows with companionship, and the closing track “LOVE FOUNTAIN,” written on omnichord, is disarmingly sincere. It feels like sunrise after a long night out, reflective, stripped back, and tender.
Beyond the music, Quealy continues to build a fully realized visual universe. Her videos, packed with gothic romance, motorcycle chases, and confrontational glamour, mirror the album’s emotional extremes. Her live performances blur pop concert and performance art, drawing from ballet, cabaret, and vogue culture. It’s spectacle with purpose.
Influences from artists like Charli XCX, Madonna, and Die Antwoord can be traced in her fearless theatrics and hyper-feminine edge, but Quealy is no imitation. Where others posture, she commits. Where others chase irony, she bleeds sincerity into the glitter.
With JAWBREAKER, Sam Quealy doesn’t just refine her sound, she weaponizes it. It’s an album that dances through breakdowns and breakthroughs alike, capturing the whiplash of modern desire with defiance and style. Messy, magnetic, and unapologetically alive, it confirms Quealy as one of the most compelling figures operating between pop spectacle and underground club culture today.