"It's a challenge to sum up the sound of the first album she recorded under the name Underscores, 2021's Fishmonger, or its follow-up, a concept album based around three young female inhabitants of a mythical Michigan town called Wallsocket: there really was an awful lot going on on both of them. But if you were forced to come up with a shorthand description, you might plump for hyperpop meets emo pop-punk, a sonic cocktail that, as you might imagine, occasionally proved a bit too flavoursome for its own good."
"While Wallsocket was bombarding you with distorted guitars, stammering vocal samples, dive-bombing brostep basslines, honking rave electronics, nu-metal riffs, heaving shoegaze textures, gunshot sound effects, vintage video-game bleeps, drums that split the difference between dancefloor pulse and the double-time thunder of hardcore punk, and vocals alternately delivered in a bratty drawl or a full-throated, heavily distorted scream, there were definitely moments when you wished Grey might consider the wisdom of the old adage about less sometimes being more."
"In the first few minutes alone you get fizzing EDM synth noise, vocals that are heavily AutoTuned and cut up, the sound of a DJ backspinning a record, plunges into silence punctuated by laughter, and booming drums dosed with reverse echo over which Grey repeats the title of opening track Tell Me (U Want It) in the kind of hoarse menacing whisper with which teenage campers tend to be addressed in horror films."
April Grey, a US bedroom producer, has gained recognition from artists including 100 Gecs, Danny Brown, and Travis Barker. Her sound defies easy categorization, blending hyperpop with emo pop-punk across albums like Fishmonger and the concept album Wallsocket. Her third album U continues this approach, featuring heavily AutoTuned vocals, EDM synths, distorted guitars, rave electronics, nu-metal riffs, and shoegaze textures. While previous work occasionally felt overstuffed with production elements, U demonstrates slightly more restraint. The album opens with densely layered production including DJ scratches, silence punctuated by laughter, and booming drums with reverse echo, establishing Grey's continued commitment to experimental, maximalist pop production.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]