underscores : U
On U, pop extraordinaire April Harper Grey sets her worldbuilding aside to have fun. Her previous records, fishmonger and Wallsocket, were loaded with motifs: Hyperpop meets emo meets indie rock, mixed with mythical vignettes of a fictional American midwestern town. This collaging not only steered the maximalist electronic genre to grounded guitar territory but also welcomed the immersive complexion of underscores. An interactivity and grandiosity are woven into those projects—the sonic endorphins could be a bit much if you’re not wholly invested in Grey’s autofiction.
To make that overglow more digestible, Grey’s gone all in on the music that has forever defined her artistry: mid-2000s Madonna and Britney; Skrillex’s brostep at the dawn of 2010; and lively K-pop numbers written for intricate choreography. U ditches the obfuscating, chaotic narrative, which puts Grey at the fore, offering pop songs as herself directly to the second person “you.” The resultant record is the tightest and most exuberant underscores record, recalling the glossy, uplifting aughts pop that defined the iTunes era.
Grey’s buzzing songs, while charming homages to her idols of the recent past, are also innovative—pop hasn’t jostled this hard for audacity since Charli XCX’s brat, with current chart-toppers adopting a lulling, vaguely dance-pop aesthetic at best. Meanwhile, festival electro house continues to return, its pumping four-to-the-floor rhythms now valued enough to convey a sincere story—Grey takes the extra step with her incredibly shrewd songwriting pen. That this assemblage is solely her doing makes U even more remarkable; forget 12 songwriters scheming like executives brainstorming how to probe love and fame with infectious hooks, Grey is crushing it on her own terms.
Succinctly capturing her admiration of electro-pop is the electrifying, choppy lead single “Music,” a heartfelt letter to, well, music, but the elation from the wondrously vivid imagination while listening to it: “It’s everything to me,” Grey affirms at its hyperactive final takeoff. “Hollywood Forever” dwells on a public image induced by fame, the bouncy lament contorting from Confessions-era Madonna, to complextro, then to shuffling Jersey club. The start-stop Imogen Heap-indebted a cappella “The Peace” illustrates a fallible relationship with smoke breaks—the gaps between the vocal snippets are spaces to inhale more puffs of this minimalist pop brilliance. The sensual, slinky “Innuendo (I Get U)” is Justin Timberlake and Timbaland’s partnership in its heyday transported to the now, its suffocating, supercharged bass at home in today’s debaucherous after-hours clubs. “Bodyfeeling” struts with unabashed confidence, even with its words on a bodily sensation not being reciprocated—its glimmering, hip-shaking groove is accessible enough to make any ears perk up.
This is where these tunes truly feel glamorous: U could be viewed as a reinvention of pop. Its embracing of internet electronic music is much more earnest than what the chart frontrunners are currently dishing out. Imagine hearing “Bodyfeeling”’s chic prancing while shopping at the mall—the album artwork showing that very place mustn’t be a coincidence. It’d be nice if this utopian vision of digital pop oozing optimism is nestled into spaces of mass consumption. Even so, who knows if its convergence into plain, old reality will successfully happen, or if Grey will double down on this iteration of underscores. One thing is for certain: By fine-tuning her artistry so discerningly on U, Grey has consolidated her sprawling identity into one so robust, refined, and distinctive that she may finally graduate from leftfield pop stardom.
Label: Mom+Pop
Year: 2026
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