{"id":553479,"date":"2026-03-20T19:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553479\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:54:13","slug":"zeitgeisty-hyperpop-for-an-overstimulated-isolated-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553479\/","title":{"rendered":"zeitgeisty hyperpop for an overstimulated, isolated generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following her 2023 dystopian concept record \u2018Wallsocket\u2019, hyperpop musician Underscores<\/a> sought \u201cbrain off\u201d music that wasn\u2019t as \u201cintentional\u201d<\/a> as the gloomy fictional town of her second album. But a packed schedule (supporting Porter Robinson<\/a> and Danny Brown<\/a>, playing Coachella, and appearing on NME\u2018s The Cover<\/a>) didn\u2019t afford much downtime. So lands April Harper Grey\u2019s urgent self-produced third album \u2018U\u2019, music \u201cfor malls, airports, hotels, supermarkets\u201d by a touring musician in constant transit. Though, it\u2019s not clear if this frenetic, caffeine-infused boost to survive the modern capitalist overwhelm necessarily counts as brain off.<\/p>\n

Aiming for something less intentional than concept has led to reality: hyperactive, diaristic, tabloid-ish, beyond-the-fourth-wall bangers detailing Grey\u2019s onset E-girl stardom. Amid fans now requesting autographs on their passports<\/a>, on \u2018U\u2019 \u2013 both a pseudo-self-titled record and an infatuation with you, her audience \u2013 Underscores raves under a paranoid ascension. \u201cIs this doing anything for you, baby?\u201d she performs on \u2018Tell Me (U Want It)\u2019, anxious about a bad popstar dye job. Chasing accolades, she\u2019s having \u201cwet dream[s] \u2018bout the perfect song[s]\u201d (\u2018Music\u2019), and on \u2018Hollywood Forever\u2019 she\u2019s revelling in fame\u2019s riches: \u201cIs it bad that I kinda love being a bitch?\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u2018U\u2019 is as much about intimacy (or a lack thereof) as it is celebrity, finding Grey, now a commercial product, in search of connection. Take dreamy standout \u2018Lovefield\u2019, where Grey reaches through the screen: \u201cCan we have a heart-to-heart? [\u2026] I don\u2019t wanna be untouchable anymore.\u201d But on the noughties Britney<\/a>-ish track \u2018Do It\u2019, with its Justin Timberlake breakdown, she makes herself unavailable and unattainable: \u201cDon\u2019t you get it? People get my lyrics tattooed on their bodies,\u201d she spits, possessed, \u201cI\u2019m tryna run a business here.\u201d Later, in earnest, she confesses on \u2018Bodyfeeling\u2019 that she\u2019s just not prepared to give it all up: \u201cYou know what\u2019s required of anyone in this business.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In capturing celebrity transience and ensuing emotional seclusion, \u2018U\u2019 retains Underscores\u2019 established documentarian approach to pop music: she\u2019s both time capsule and mirror, a reflection of a globalised, overstimulated, reputation-conscious, isolated generation and its parasocial obsessions. \u2018U\u2019 is not as narratively juicy as \u2018Wallsocket\u2019 \u2013 an almost-mockumentary of Middle America brimming with Twin Peaks<\/a>-level lore \u2013 but it retains Grey\u2019s observational viewpoint, a dystopian-gaze with surreal liminality.<\/p>\n

Underscores is most effective at this skill, at removing from her music any context cues that could point to a time or place of release. She jitters between decades of concentrated hyperpop, dubstep, EDM, Imogen Heap-inspired harmoniser-pop and combination guitar-electronica lab experiments, a tour-de-force of production chops that reaffirms Grey\u2019s established position as a key auteur in the future of her genre. More Black Mirror than Twin Peaks, \u2018U\u2019 is an intimate hyperpop record portraying snowballing isolation, a digital-age pop star\u2019s yearning under the limelight of the techno-infused Anthropocene.<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

\"underscores<\/p>\n

Record label: Mom+Pop
\nRelease date: March 20, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following her 2023 dystopian concept record \u2018Wallsocket\u2019, hyperpop musician Underscores sought \u201cbrain off\u201d music that wasn\u2019t as \u201cintentional\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,273635,136,11255],"class_list":["post-553479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-hyperpop","tag-music","tag-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}