This project was brought to you by my passion for this RnB infused house B-side track in the “To Be Eaten Alive” album by Mariah the Scientist in collaboration with Kaytranada.

It kicked off with the percussion, and the pad swooped in right after. I already knew. I just fell in love! And to find out it was not a single, I was heartbroken. This song is an undeniable hit that can’t be left within the 4 corners of an album. She needed to be a single. And for that to happen, she needed a cover art.

She sings about a love that she is heavily dependent on. In the hook, she sings,

He’s been distant. Maybe he’s just too deep in his head, maybe he’s having an affair. Whatever it is, he needs to put a stop to it. Restless, she explicitly says he won’t need another lover, not even another woman because she’ll be there across everything, should he treat her right. Our protagonist is all in, and she has no intention of pedalling back, which is why she needs him to confirm his involvement and commitment to the relationship.

I believe it’s a continuation to the single, released prior to the official publication of the whole album, called “From a Woman.” With bliss, she sings,

In “Out of Luck” she laments what once what seemed to be a divine connection, being clouded in doubt, maybe turning out to be a myth.

Sonically, the kick pattern plays like heart palpitations. It’s amazing how it draws you in together with the constance of the hats and snare, and the syncopated entrance of the silky smooth pad synths. It could feel like anxiety, or a really chic kitchen dance floor moment. This isn’t supposed to be a song review so let’s wrap this up!

Thinking about the song visually as a snapshot, I saw her on the ground, posed in a crawl, as if she’s about to get up, or creep. I googled photos of her I can manipulate to be the way I saw it, and one of the photos on there was of her staring the camera down through her brows, facial muscles relaxed. It was a low quality photo but I knew I could still work with it. I hadn’t even realised yet until it was on my Sketchbook canvas, but that was actually her mugshot. With a face like hers though? Respectfully, I beg to not be blamed for picking that, because she looked fierce in that photo. All love!

Afterwards, I looked for bodies to put her face on, and I rounded my search down to two stock photos. One of them was more posed, and the one I ended up using looked more natural.

I initially made her eyes and brows look sadder, more desperate, instead of how they naturally were in the source material, but I felt it didn’t really fit in with Ms. Scientist’s whole vibe (bougie baddie), so I scrapped that version. It’s not that she’s sad and broken down she might be losing him, rather she’s persisting and seducing him through a spicy song and dance for him to give her the same time and devotion she’s willing and ready to give him. The question of “would you make me believe that I’m all out of luck?” this way feels sarcastic. Of all people? He will make her believe she’s all out of luck? He’s funny.

Then came in the many trials of getting her body to look right under the threshold effect. The stock photo had our body donor with a regular shirt on, and, again, I thought that didn’t fit in with Ms. Scientist’s whole vibe. Therefore, I painted on top of her shirt and arms to make it look like shiny oiled-up skin. Later, I looked up the cover arts of her previous work, and I found the shiny shoulders to be consistent in a lot of them.

At this point, it was pretty much done, but I still felt like she was missing something. And then it hit me. Earrings.

Mariah the Scientist is a scorpio which she intentionally represented in this album with the presence of the scorpion in the official album art, and with the prominence of red in the whole era. Scorpios are caricatured to be very possessive, toxic, seductive, irresistible, all of which this song embodies exceedingly well. That justifies my desire even more for this track to be released as a single with a complementary music video!

Actually, I hear this song in particular to look more purple, which reflected in my initial version. (Here are some other variations:)

But knowing the scorpio motifs in this era, it makes sense to go with the red. With the typography, I went for a leathery look to represent the scorpion from the album cover. The gloss of the leather is coherent with the oiled-up shoulders, which makes it perfect.

One fun tiny detail most would miss is the U in “out” in the middle of the loop of the L in “Luck.” It furthers the narrative of her entrapping her person.

With all of this said, I really do believe this song could be such a huge global hit. Perfect to be done so for Fall 2024. Kaytranada, as of writing this, recently dropped his album “Timeless” featuring a re-mixed version of “Out of Luck” so we might just see my vision come to life. Who knows!