Methony Utano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new underscores album, U.

Here we have a brand new record from singer-songwriter-producer April Harper Grey, and this is her third album under the underscores name, a music project that started to see buzz around the turn of the 2020s with the debut album fishmonger gaining buzz over the course of the pandemic online.

And while fishmonger was not strictly a hyperpop album, mostly due to its very wide net of influences, ranging from various terminally online pop styles to indie rock and pop-rock, singer-songwriter music as well. It did actually gain quite a bit of traction in hyperpop-friendly spaces, probably due to its heavily pitched, manipulated, and warped lead vocals and its chaotic and claustrophobic production.

It was a good breakout album, and April's popularity continued to grow even as she leaned even more into her rock influences on the follow-up Wallsocket, a record that I loved, whose tracklist is packed with these insanely catchy topical songs that sometimes work with a fun and super punky energy, which even carried over onto this project's rowdy electropop jammers. There are some really abstract and forlorn cuts on this project, too, that work super well.

The point is, underscores has been nothing if not a super versatile and complex project up until this point, which is why U is such a surprise. Because on this LP, April has really chosen to hone her pop talents, and the result is a super focused, 9-track, 34-minute experience where April really transforms herself into a pop girly from top to bottom, especially with lead singles like "Do It", which is handily one of the strongest pop tunes of the year with its pumping, club-friendly percussion and sharp combo of flashy little synth touches and acoustic licks.

It's not just a reminder of what made a lot of aughties pop so good, but it also feels like a continuation of what made hyperpop take off in the first place, as it takes the optimistic futurism of this bygone pop era to its next logical step, and does it without any sort of pretense or irony.

I would say the same is the case for "Music" as a single, a track whose jittery, sputtering beats and bass aren't just irresistible, but also feel like a conscious nod to pioneering producers such as SOPHIE. Plus, who doesn't love some good music about music itself?

I mean, the track is also about jelling with somebody so well that it's sublime and romantic as well. And many tracks on U are exactly that. But I love that "Music" serves as the reference point to this very positive feeling. Not to mention the building bridge that lists off various genres as the song comes to a close.

So, with tracks like these, I had a lot to be excited for going into U. But sadly, like many an album from this era, the quality of songwriting did feel a little lopsided and concentrated a bit much into the singles. Or, really, the album itself has a bit of a slow start in my opinion, as "Tell Me (U Want It)" is a splotchy piece of textured electropop whose various drops work well enough, sure, but barely enough to justify this full genre switch, as this very much feels like a song that, if it had landed on Wallsocket, it would have come to a much more cathartic conclusion, especially given its feelings of yearning and confusion.

Meanwhile, "Hollywood Forever" does reach a pretty decent peak, but the dreamy dance-pop passages that surround this high point are mostly forgettable and lack punch. Then, "The Peace", while this is a track that does have some great vocal harmonies and melodies and lyrics, the track does come across structurally like this continuous tension buildup that doesn't really have that strong of a conclusion. It's like an almost 3-minute intro of sorts.

Conversely, the song "Lovefield" is also a track that has a very subtle start, lots of intimate feelings, but does actually reach a stupendous hook and a great finale ("It hurts me to wait on you"). Like, by far the superior track. And also, just the lyrical concept on this song of the lovefield and being outside of it- is this like the opposite of the friendzone? I'm kidding, but this really is one of the best tracks on the record when it comes to a melodic slow burner.

"Innuendo (I Get U)" is a track that, at the very start, features a little bit more PC Music worship, but blossoms into a glitchy, bouncy, bassy pop anthem that, at points, reminds me of the super layered and dense mixes that we would hear on early releases from Clarence Clarity, like No Now. I also love the big, punchy EDM finale at the very end of the song, too.

But if we're talking stellar Pop Songwriting 101, you gotta go to the song "Bodyfeeling", which feels like an 80s anthem at its core, but it's not produced in this way that's super epic and over-the-top and spacious with gated drums. Rather, the louder and punchier the song gets, the more saturated and claustrophobic it feels, especially with how fried the mix gets at the finish.

But still, no matter how harsh this track gets, it doesn't take away from how sweet and instantly catchy the songwriting is. Like, this could easily be a Selena Gomez or Sabrina Carpenter song, and when I say that I mean, like, one of their best songs in their catalog, period.

Then the finisher, "Wish U Well", is a very bittersweet goodbye, of course, with some pretty smart lyrics like, "You're walking to the corner store, you're interlocking arms / She looks just like me / In a way, it's beautiful / I'm wherever you go, but I / I'll wish you well forever, I'll wish you well."

It's not completely a goodbye song, because April very much makes it clear, were this person ever to become available again, she would be ready to jump right back in because she doesn't really truly want to say goodbye. Which makes this a very heart-wrenching moment, just like the closer to her last record, which I will say did hit a little bit harder for me. But this one still does tie up the themes of this record and its kind of heartbroken yearning storyline pretty nicely.

Overall, U was a pretty interesting but enjoyable switch-up for underscores. Not quite as versatile and as broadly enjoyable as Wallsocket, in my opinion, but U also has quite a bit of bangers on it to match that record. And I do appreciate that if we're going to get less material and less diversity, that in exchange for that, we're getting a bit more genre focus and depth with how many shades of pop and dance music April is attempting to embrace here.

Plus, in addition to that, you're talking about April writing more from a personal and a conceptual narrative standpoint, with pretty much all these tracks seeming to revolve around, uh, this relationship, this dynamic, which it's difficult to categorize this even just plainly as a breakup album, because for the bulk of this record, a lot of its feelings are spent just in this state of torture and disorientation, just over the question of will they, won't they.

So really, more than just a straight breakup album, this feels like an ode to a relationship that could have been something, could have blossomed into something more, if not for just the bad communication, the misfires, the misunderstandings, the distance emotionally and physically, and still wanting that even long after what could have been is pretty much confirmed to be over, which in a lot of ways is almost even sadder.

But yeah, even if I did enjoy Wallsocket quite a bit more, U is still a very enjoyable album, and I could see why the record is driving so much hype for April and underscores still, even with the many changes this album brings to the project, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, underscores. Forever.