“I’m making it for people who just wanna get lost”, says Angel Haze in the very first sound to emerge from her debut album. If by “lost” she means confused and distracted, then mission accomplished. Dirty Gold, Haze’s debut album, attempts to be the next big hip-pop crossover record to sell an outrageous number of records and still seem cool. But as Ron Swanson once so perfectly put it: “Never half-ass two things, whole ass one thing.”

The Jekyll and Hyde tendencies of Dirty Gold are exposed right from the off. Opening number “Sing About Me” is your classic 2010s meandering pop fare; all shallow rhetoric and empty musical gestures. Haze lets rip in the verses, but the chorus could just as easily be Britney Spears, or Katy Perry, or Ke$ha, or Lady Gaga, or that one, or the other one.

Confusion reigns as this is immediately followed up with “Echelon (It’s My Way)”, a pop-rap mini-masterpiece. Built on an unusual synth line and a hyperactive drum machine that pops and squelches until you can’t help but tap along with it. Lyrically, it’s mostly about how fashionable our protagonist is, but it’s the rhythm that makes this song, not the words. Musically, it’s a fascinating listen that still manages to sound fun. After a disappointing start, we get to hear what Angel Haze is capable of.

From then on the album sways between mundane chart-friendly choruses and decent if unmemorable rapped verses. Until “April’s Fool” that is, when Haze ups her game again. A Gorillaz-lite synth gives way to a straight drum beat that uses the simple trick of two different snare sounds; simple but incredibly effective. Not to mention the best hi-hats you’ll hear this year. Seriously. You could play them in a club on their own and people would still dance. Thank Malay for that, the producer who also has credits on Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange.

The record’s low point comes in the form of “Battle Cry”, a sure-fire single in which Haze attempts both the Eminem and Rihanna bits from those kinds of songs. Neither work. It’s a piano ballad about believing in yourself, but with drums in it to get the kids to listen. It’s difficult to comprehend that this is the same artist as “Echelon” or “April’s Fool”, but that’s the frustration that makes up the spine of this album. Haze and her production team have creative ideas and the means to realise them on record. They simply distract themselves trying to turn a rapper into a pop star.

Much of the buzz around this record was generated thanks to a probably-carefully-constructed-but-nonetheless-very-clever-PR-move where Angel Haze herself, in a fit of rage about her label’s release plans, put the album on the internet for a few hours before taking it down again. Stunt or not, it’s this hip-hop attitude that seems to endear Haze to her fan base. All we need now is the record that goes with it.