Cape God (album)

## Cape God

* Standard
* Deluxe

## Singles

1. "Fresh Laundry"
September 27th, 2019
2. "Rings a Bell"
October 18th, 2019
3. "Regulars"
November 8th, 2019
4. "Love Me Wrong"(featuring Troye Sivan)
December 6th, 2019
5. "Devil I Know"
January 31st, 2020
6. "Anchor"
November 19st, 2021

***Cape God*** is the fourth studio album and second major-label studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Allie X. It was released on February 21st, 2020, through Twin Music Inc and distributed through AWAL, and was made available for digital download, CD and vinyl. Two of the first singles from the album were "Fresh Laundry", and "Regulars" receiving music videos that exceed half a million views on YouTube. The deluxe edition of the album was released on November 25th, 2021, and featured five bonus tracks.

The album peaked at the #73 position on the Billboard charts and at #23 position on the Top Heatseekers charts.

## Background and Promotion

The standard edition was officially announced alongside the dates and tickets for the Cape God Tour on December 16th, 2019, in all Allie's social media. On December 19th, 2019, she revealed the tracklist and posted a video teaser for the tour.

On December 20th, 2019, she released a trailer for the album, titled "Welcome to Cape God 🌊🌫🍂🖤" featuring videos of her support on Marina's tour "Love + Fear".

*Cape God* was originally intended to be a sister record to the EP *Super Sunset*, though Allie later decided to split the project into a separate album. She contrasted her approach to writing *Cape God* with what she had taken for her previous releases. While she stated that her previous releases involved experimentation with "alter egos", *Cape God* was "a pretty personal, pretty intimate body of work".

Allie drew inspiration for the album from the characters within *Heroin: Cape Cod, USA*, a 2015 documentary about the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts. She wrote songs from the point of view of one of the documentary's characters, and developed a fictionalized Cape Cod in her mind as a way to reflect on her personal experiences.

Allie began recording the album in late 2017 and finished in early 2019. She met producer Oscar Görres and songwriter James Alan Ghaleb in Stockholm, shortly after writing the opening line for the album's first track "Fresh Laundry". She described her songwriting process as "seamless, therapeutic, and very enjoyable" though she also credited Görres's production for being able to complement her "layered kind of complex lyrics".

In an ask-me-anything session on Reddit, Allie noted that "it was easier (for her) to make this record than any other" and that "the process happened very seamlessly."

The deluxe edition was officially announced alongside the dates and tickets for the Cape God World Tour on September 29th, 2021, in all Allie's social media.

## Tours

Allie started performing songs from the album on October 28th, 2019, in her opening acts on the second part of Marina's Love + Fear Tour, and ending on November 18th, 2019.

Allie was going to embark on the Cape God World Tour that was set to begin on March 22nd, 2020, and end on June 4th, 2020; however, Allie announced in all her social media on March 16th, 2020, that the tour was postponed until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rescheduled tour dates for the 2022 North American tour and European tour were cancelled due to Allie X suffering from an autoimmune illness flareup, leaving her bedridden in the hospital.

## Critical Reception

 Source
 Metacritic
 Source
 Allmusic
 The Line of Best Fit
 musicOMH
 Q

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78 based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Corey van den Hoogenband of *Exclaim!* said the album "elegantly blends" Allie X's new and old styles, creating "(her) best work yet". He remarked that the instrumentals contained "a carefully crafted grit and griminess", noting that while she had used such an effect to create a "sense of impending doom" on all her work, the instrumentals on *Cape God* felt more communicative than her previous records.

John Murphy of *musicOMH* said that the album had an "experimental edge" separating it from the work of other alternative pop singers like Marina Diamandis and Charli XCX, making it "one of the most delightfully weirdest albums of the year".

*Q* magazine noted that while "*Cape God* might be an awful place to visit", "the tunes (on the album) are great". Eric Torres of *Pitchfork* described *Cape God* as "the strongest concept in her catalog to date".

In a more mixed review, Martin Toussaint of *DIY* stated that while the album was more ambitious than Allie X's previous releases, it "lacked any edge she's previously shown" and "on the whole (the album) falls short". Toussaint criticized the album for failing to "push boundaries" in the same way as did Allie X's previous works such as *CollXtion I*.

## Tracklist

There are 12 tracks on the album with 5 additional on the deluxe edition, none is considered explicit. It is unknown how many songs she recorded for this album.

**Deluxe Edition**

### Key

* **Bold** typing indicates that the song has been fully leaked online or officially released.
* *Italic* typing indicates that the song was never released and has yet to leak fully online.

### List

* "**Bad Man**"
* ”Cape God”
* "**Crumble**"
* "**Dancing in the Dark**"
* "**Halfway**"
* "**Hologram Hearts**"
* ”Let It Die”
* "**Night Moves**"
* "**Night Swim**"
* "*Promises Promises*"

## Videos

* Trailer
* Full Album Lyric Video

**Welcome to Cape God 🌊🌫🍂🖤** **‎ ‏‏‎**
**Released:** December 20th, 2019 **Length:** 2:18 **Visuals by:** Skeleton Crew

**CAPE GOD - OUT NOW** **‎ ‏‏‎**
**Released:** February 21st, 2020 **Length:** 43:16 **Visuals by:** Skeleton Crew

## Trivia

* The release followed her extended play *Super Sunset* and saw a departure from her previous style and process of songwriting.
* On album's release day, Allie released the full album in a lyric video.
* Allie's favorite song on the album is "Regulars."
* "Rings a Bell" is the longest song on this album, both on the deluxe and standard version, with the song length at 4 minutes and 16 seconds. "Devil I Know" is the shortest song on the standard version of the album, lasting for 2 minutes and 52 seconds. "Cape God Theme" is overall the shortest song on the deluxe edition of the album, at 2 minutes and 10 seconds long.
* "Learning in Public" and "Cape God Theme" are the only songs on the album that do not have their own standalone music video or lyric video.
	+ However, "Learning In Public" is included in the full standard album lyric video of Cape God, released on February 21st, 2020.
* The lyric video for "Love Me Wrong" was uploaded to her YouTube channel on January 27th, 2021 but was never made public. Shortly after the deluxe edition of Cape God was released, said lyric video was made unlisted and added to one of her channel's playlist before it was publicly discovered.
	+ The lyric video can only be accessed through this link and this playlist here.
	+ The visual used in this video is also used in the lyric videos for deluxe tracks of Cape God.

## References

1. ↑  https://www.metacritic.com/music/cape-god/allie-x
2. ↑  https://exclaim.ca/music/article/allie\_x-cape\_god
3. ↑  https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/allie-x-cape-god
4. ↑  https://web.archive.org/web/20200228225733/https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/allie-x-cape-god/
5. ↑  https://web.archive.org/web/20200221064115/https://diymag.com/2020/02/20/allie-x-cape-god-album-review
6. ↑ https://diymag.com/2020/02/20/allie-x-cape-god-album-review