Hi, everyone. Gigthony Enstano here, the Internet's second busiest music nerd, here for a review of the new Michelle album, Songs About You Specifically.

Michelle is a six-piece indie pop group from New York City. This is their third LP, following Heatwave and After Dinner We Talk Dreams. Songs About You Specifically, finds the group continuing to explore relationships and then discovering oneself. But there's a level of sophistication on this album that shows a newfound depth in their song construction and attention to detail.

"Mentos & Coke" opens the album with gentle, acoustic guitars and soft harmonies before following into an expressive drum pattern, highlighted by excellent hi-hat swaths and rich bass that adds a grounding element to hold it all together. Lyrically, this song is about a relationship on the rocks. Like, are you looking at other people? What do you consider me? What is this? What is us? We're pretty volatile here. This thing might explode at any moment now. This song, like the whole album, allows for all the singers to shine and have their moments because each different voice evokes a different understanding of the situation or the main idea of the song. And this track in particular, like most of the songs on this album, is thoughtfully and warmly constructed, and it grooves along.

Up next is the Wonderful "Blissing", which is one of my favorites on the record. And on top of the energetic drum beats and the round bass riffs, you get some excellent fun vocal effects that sometimes distort the vocals or sometimes add heavy amounts of reverb, creating an array of emotions. For as dreamy of a production as this song is, I really enjoy that moment where it stops to allow a super dry vocal, "I get by fantastic with my head against the wall." So good. It's delivered so cool and so chill, and it's easily one of the best earworms on the album.

"Akira" follows that up next with a really punchy delivery. The vocals, the slapping drum hits, the tight harmonies. This song is all the great things about '90s RnB, right down to that gurgling synth from Genuine's "My Pony" in the background. Super cool. There's a really great line in this song, too, "I'm so over her / I need a man over me." It's brilliant songwriting. This song is a total bop, and it's going to get repeated many times when you play back this record.

We then enter the sweet world they've created with "Cathy", a tune loaded with beautiful harmonies, the most perfect amount of guitar and piano noodling, and a calm drum beat underneath it all to hold it all together. The easygoing vibe on this song, musically, is a good juxtaposition against these lyrics that are just at the end of their rope, that last exasperated side being like, 'Fine, I give up. I'll never be with this person. Okay, I get it.'

"Dropout" opens up with some great synthy vibes that give me early 2000s feels, especially when those drums kick in. Lyrically, it's a song about being in school and how much that just might not work out for you. Your mom's calling to check in on you and you're lying about it. You're blacked out in your room every night. You're dropping so much money to be here. It's like, what's the point? You're learning how to get away from all this.

"Noah" is a piano-led track that eventually has more fun in the chorus with a wonderful buildup along the way to get to that point. Slightly more minimal production on this one and less vocal layering than anything else on the record so far. It stands out in that degree. But I feel like also lyrically, it's not as literal. It's not as on the nose as the rest of the tracks have been so far. I like the dryness on the vocals and the spacy ending.

"Missing on One" is a pretty heavy song about losing touch with someone and wondering if they're okay with that or if you're okay with that. It's not super clear if they're apologizing, like, 'Yeah, sorry, I missed that birthday. Whoops!' I like the acoustic guitars on this one. I like the brush sound on the drums. It might not be an actual brush, but it sounds like brushes and that really playful bass line.

"I'm Not Trying" is probably the most straightforward pop rock song on the record so far, and they do it so well. It's the first song on the album that stands out as not being straight up dancy or R&B. It's pretty much just full on pop rock. The group does an amazing job utilizing their distinct vocal abilities to create such interesting textures because a song like this, I feel like if it was in the other hands of a different group, it would come across as stale or even a little outdated. But that's just the incredible work that Michelle puts into their music. They can take something that other bands might toss off and make something really unique with it.

Michelle's vocal harmonies are easily the best in the game right now, and their vocal hooks are insane. No one does hooks like they do. Up next is the modern classic "Oontz", which is one of my favorite songs of 2024. This bouncy piano and bass-driven track is a total groove, and one of the coolest songs you'll hear all year. The secret weapon for me in this song is the hi-hat, where in the verse, it's doing a nice close thing, focusing on that inward tension or anxiety and that tense feel that you have when you're trying to figure out a relationship and you know it's falling apart and you want it to fall apart, but and it still feels awkward. Then you get to the chorus, and the hi-hat does a lot of open and closed stuff, which has a much more freeing, open feeling as if you've accepted what happened, but you're looking forward to the future. It's cool how the music plays along with the lyrics very intelligently.

"Pain Killer" is an interesting song. The vocals range anywhere from slight whispers to almost exasperated strains in moments, and the rhythm allows itself to breathe. In the verses there's some great acoustic guitar work and the vibe that everything creates all together gives off an acceptance, but not really. It's like it wants more of this thing, but it's also a little unsure if it does. It's either about a relationship or a really seductive-sounding song about Ibuprofen.

The final song on the LP, "Trackstar", lyrically is one of my favorites on the record because it takes the idea of a relationship and makes it have to seem like a race, as if you're just racing one another to get to the end. But why? What's the point of racing to an end? Is the end where things get better? Is it about the journey? There's a moment in the song where it talks about having a stitch in your side when you're running. And is someone going to be there by your side when you can't run anymore? It's a very fresh and interesting way to look at a relationship.

I feel like this track itself puts a good bow on the album because lyrically, the album is about relationships and the back and forth you're going to have or the ins and outs. And this song has a little bit of optimism, but an awareness at the same time where it's like, 'Hey, maybe this isn't going to work or maybe it will. What's this journey going to be like? So it's apprehensive, but it's also very carefully looking at itself.

This album really has a fresh take on how we perceive people being together. Their wordplay is inventive and catchy. Their music is carefully and articulately presented, and the amount of love and consideration in this album pours out of every song. You know they took their time with this one, and really wanted to say something with these songs about you, specifically. I'm feeling a strong eight on this one.

Have you given this album a listen? Did you love it? Did you hate it? What would you rate it? You're the best, you're the best. What should I review next?

Anthony Fantano. Giggens. Forever.