may 25 album review

music so good i had to write it

Music’s been sounding so good recently, I had to revive my monthly album reviews! Welcome back to another installment, here’s the memo: I don’t discuss all the albums released in the past month or even all the ones I listened to — just what I felt like writing about. It’s my Substack and I get to choose the music.

SEQUENCE 01 - f5ve

F5ve, a five-member J-pop girl group, has released their debut album SEQUENCE 01. The group entered my radar via music videos sprinkled on my YouTube recommended page. My interest in them further piqued once I learned A.G. Cook (founder of PC Music, frequent collaborator of Charli xcx) and Count Baldor (frequent collaborator of PinkPantheress and Dorian Electra) were producers of their new tracks. I needed to see for myself if pop excellence was being crafted here.

The “PC” influence definitely shows; across the album, f5ve blends bubblegum bass with typical Japanese pop fare for a bright, energetic pop sound. “Underground” and “Magic Clock” kick off the album with addictive, earworm refrains over warbly, bubbly synths. “Sugar Free Venom” ft. Kesha and “Television” show a saucier side to the girls, trading in saccharine melodies for textured bass and sassy line deliveries.

Though the girls share a lot of charisma on the songs and the album is ultimately fun, something here doesn’t quite click with me all the way deeply. Perhaps the songs feel a little too restrained or calculated — I kept waiting for something to explode beyond my expectations. Regardless, if you’re a pop enjoyer (especially if Pop 2 era Charli xcx is your jam) it’s worth checking this album out. You’re leaving with some songs saved!

Favs: “Magic Clock,” “UFO,” “Sugar Free Venom” ft. Kesha, “Jump”

Verdict: a f3w f5ves

Equus Caballus - Men I Trust

Equus Caballus is the second installment of Men I Trust’s 2025 double-album release, its predecessor being Equus Asinus. Equus Caballus offers the usual Men I Trust characteristics, but performing at the top of their game. Lead singer Emma Proulx’s soft, simple vocals coo over melancholic instrumentals and juicy basslines, yet it feels dreamier this time.

Something of a groovy 80s pop persuasion is laced in the earlier tracks — particularly in “To Ease You,” a banger opener that feels like dancing on a cloud trapped in a haze of longing. Guitar riffs reminiscent of 80s darkwave populate the album as it continues.

Equus Caballus’ cover captures the album’s soundscape so succinctly: wet, vertigo, youthful spinning. If you know how to chill out and catch an em-eff vibe, then you can enjoy this album.

Favs: “To Ease You,” “Come Back Down,” “Carried Away,” “Where I Sit,” “Eris (Wait)”

Verdict: upstate roadtrip in the rain

Lifetime - Erika de Casier

It was an unsuspecting Thursday when singer-songwriter and producer Erika de Casier “surprise” dropped her trip-hop, downtempo-esque album Lifetime. Self-written, self-produced, and her first independent release, Lifetime marks a new chapter for the artist.

De Casier stays in tune with her R&B sensibilities whilst weaving in moody, haunting vocals, staggered drums, and smooth basslines. This whole album feels like a clandestine lover whispering you a secret.

The optimistic and roaming track “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” features echoing pianos and rolling strings that wash over you, evoking a gloomy sonic longing akin to “The Heart Remains a Child” by Everything But The Girl — albeit more determined in hope through the lyrics: “One can only hope / That beauty lies ahead / And to see it without judgment or fear.”

De Casier flaunts her impeccable sense of timing and flow, riding over any beat; her signature sassy yet effortless delivery floats atop the syncopated drums of “You Got It!” and “Delusional.”

Other tracks pull you in with their ability to capture a feeling. The fractured, glittering synths of “Seasons” flutter in your chest, its industrial drums sound like the gears of a heart wrecking as it turns, the phone dial tones of “The Chase” over sensual snares elicit the intimacy of a phone call where the soft strength of seduction rises to the top.

This strength collapses in a climax on “Moan,” an atmospheric song that feels like practicing to breathe underwater, swallowing seafoam, and learning to recognize what water on your chest feels like at different pressures.

Favs: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Seasons,” “December,” “The Chase,” “The Garden”

Verdict: lifetime of lust and longing

Sincerely, - Kali Uchis

Kali Uchis’ Sincerely, is simultaneously a return to form and an evolution. In the songstress’s fifth album, she explores motherhood, love, and womanhood. It blooms over you like a blush across your face after a kiss.

The Amy Winehouse, 60s pop groups, and traditional R&B influences that guided Uchis’ 2015 mixtape Por Vida have upgraded in Sincerely, to match a grown up Kali Uchis — lush, immersive, drenched in heady love and sincere storytelling.

Though the tracks on the album may blend together for the first few listens, this blending feels more like a testament to the cohesion of Uchis’ worldbuilding rather than some unshaken monotony. The punctuation on each song title is a hint to energy expected on the track, and Sincerely,’s standouts are found in tracks like “Sugar! Honey! Love!” Excitement for a new love reverberates from the low, dripping vocals of the verses to the crooning vocals of the chorus.

One thing about me, I love a beat switch-up in a song, I love a little internal “part one” and “part two,” so you can imagine I was very pleased with “Lose My Cool,.” It begins with a beachy, old-school retro romantic love song that basks in the vulnerability of beginning to love someone. The song then shifts into a shoegazey second half that complements Uchis’ siren-like voice. The dizzying refrain is cut through by Uchis high notes. “Angels All Around Me…,” another beat-switch track, is my new soundtrack to prayer and manifestation, trust.

Over the course of seven years, Kali Uchis has been 5 for 5 with her albums… I’m kind of scared of her.

Favs: “Sugar! Honey! Love!,” “Lose My Cool,,” “For: You,” “Fall Apart,,” “Angels All Around Me…”

Verdict: playing for the future kids during our Sunday house cleaning to raise their frequencies and teach them about the music back in my day

Fancy That - PinkPantheress

PinkPantheress sang the words, “my name is Pink and I’m really glad to meet you,” and I knew pop history was about to be made on her new mixtape: Fancy That.

Many have tried to dip their hands into the PinkPantheress purse (that’s why she always keeps one on her!). Glittery takes on drum ’n’ bass with staccato melodies have entered our pop airwaves ever since she stepped on the scene — but the British pop innovator continues to reinvent her sound and prove that she is one of one.

Fancy That shifts the darker edge found in to hell with it and Heaven knows into a high tempo, flirtatious sound infused with 2000s Britpop and UK dance. Her sample/interpolation selection shows she’s really about the culture: multiple Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada cuts, Nardo Wick’s iconic line on “Who Want Smoke??”, a Sugababes deep cut, and I swear the intro of “Stars” samples the Kamisama Kiss intro. This isn’t the typical haphazard nostalgia-bait sampling plaguing the masses today — it’s an intentional homage to the music that raised PinkPantheress and speaks to her impeccable ear to make the samples work.

All of these elements together craft a unique sound that speaks to her personal relationship with music and her influences. “Illegal” and “Girl Like Me” both sound like they’d belong on a 2007 girls’ dress up video game OST that you though was lost to time until you did some deep scouring on Reddit threads. The throbbing bassline, flittering piano, and chorus of people singing on “Girl Like Me” have me ready to put on a feather boa, a leopard print purse, and call it fashion! PinkPantheress brushes off her lower register in songs like “Noises” and “Nice To Meet You,” with RapperPantheress on the former and some Lily-Allen-esque sass on the latter.

Producer D.A.R.E enters the studio on “Stateside,” which is my song of the summer. In a groundbreaking two minutes and forty-eight seconds for Miss Pink, we have an addicting hook, chorus, post-chorus, and breakdown, all burgeoning with buzzing electricity. You can tell she was having a good time in the studio recording this mixtape and that energy is infectious. Mark my words … heed my warning … a future music industry legend is being created as we speak…

Drenched in the nostalgic, yet so unique and fresh and fun, if you can’t enjoy Fancy That, there is a darkness inside you that is eating away at your heart.

Favs: “Girl Like Me,” “Tonight,” “Stars,” “Nice to Know You,” “Stateside,” “Romeo”

Verdict: queen of england and pop!

Negotiations - Kilo Kish

Kilo Kish’s latest EP, Negotiations, explores “the human body and mind as interconnected machines navigating the complexities of modern life” per her website. This throughline is evident in both the lyrical content and the soundscape of this project; Kish is as talented as ever in building a world and bringing you into it — a feat on a project as short as this!

Glitchy electrosynths surround Kish’s signature precise and sharp singing, mirroring the monotony and patterns brought on by our corporate and digital lives. The 80s influenced sounds hark back to the decade’s accelerating digital boom: widespread adoption of personal computers, portable music players, and the influx of synthesizers. The corporate motifs further align with the 80s wave in corporate “power dressing” and white collar job growth.

Throughout Negotiations, there is a sense of ascension. This is most evident in a track like “reprogram.” There is a slow layering of punchy synths, synths that trickle in and out glimmering, and a robotic vocal performance: “Frankly I’m just” — beat — “I’m just going through the motions.” It devolves into a string assortment rising and lowering in pitch as “and then what’s real” repeats and the chorus echoes back in.

Favs: “digital emotional,” “reprogram,” “negotiate” ft. Miguel, “enough”

Verdict: girl against the machine

LETHAL - Rico Nasty

Rico Nasty’s LETHAL presents an evolved, experimental take on her signature sugar trap sound. Though it took me a couple listens to get into (and finally touch the gold that is the second half), I ended up enjoying this project.

Rico flourishes most when she blends rage, rock, and rap. She brings a sugary sweet edge to the pop-punk rap sound, carnivorous and cute. The opener “WHO WANT IT” sets this tone, and the track run from “EAT ME!” to “SON OF A GUN” elevate it. They’re explosive in energy, sliced with harsh guitar riffs, scratchy screamo vocals, a delectable beat switch in “EAT ME!,” and some funny ass bars (“I’m a cheater, shout out to my dad,” or “She can’t sit next to me that bitch rock Fashion Nova”).

Rico explores both ends of the rage-rap spectrum on LETHAL. She switches it up with more melodic songs, reaching a high point during “ON THE LOW’s” euphoric hook and twinkling synths. She goes full 90s punk on “SMOKE BREAK,” and dips into pop-rock yearning on “CRASH” and “SMILE.” Stay with me when I say this y’all, but give SZA a feature on “CRASH” or “SMILE!” SZA proved she has it in her on “Scorsese Baby Daddy” and “F2F,” her vocal tone would work well on those songs, the subject matter is lyrically up her alley, and you know she would have fun with it!

When listening to LETHAL, you fully believe Rico Nasty is the rager she says she is. She is about that life. It’s a marathon of maintaining momentum, and I know anyone seeing her live will have the time of their life in a moshpit. I’m left thinking about how Rico occupies a similar musical sound to Playboi Carti and his clones, while showing far more versatility and being more interesting to listen to (comparing recent releases). It’s unfortunate the Carti and Carti-adjacent fanbases are largely full of women-hating freaks (see: when Rico Nasty opened for Carti in 2021) who will not tune in. Jordan Terrell Carter, you better give my girl your beats because you clearly don’t know what to do on them anymore, speaking straight rubbish over perfectly good production like don’t piss me off.

Anyways.

I admire Rico’s commitment to this being a weird ass alternative pretty black girl and I hope she keeps doing her shit.

Favs: “ON THE LOW,” “EAT ME!,” “GRAVE,” “CRASH,” “SMILE”

Verdict: K.O. — KNOCKOUT!

Evangelic Girl is a Gun - yeule

Over the course of their first three albums, yeule has navigated some distinct genre shifts. Though the glitch-pop cyberkinetic motifs have remained a constant, their flirtations with nu-metal, trip-hop, and rock have grown stronger. The 2023 album softscars has some of my favorite songs to come out that year: “dazies” and “sulky baby.”

Their visceral pop punk electroclash sound continues in Evangelic Girl is a Gun, speaking very deeply to my middle school self with some emo ass guitar, revelations on the cyber-experience in the digital age, and bright, shimmering vocals.

“Eko” just might be a perfect pop song, with carnal lyrics that itch the brain just right: “Acid tripping, silver spinning, scrape inside my head / … / All this time, always I find she;s rotting, crystal, diamond, shining.” The the laidback and honest “VV” contains similarly striking lyrics as well: “Scepters of death in my chest growing into my flesh … I’ll soon become the flowers in your eyes / And we’ll die side by side.”

The titular “Evangelic Girl is a Gun” comes at you full force with electro-pop-punk influence and an instrumental break you can taste: pop rocks on the tongue, crushed metal, fresh line of blood from a paper cut. While I remain a softscars truther, I hope Evangelic Girl is a Gun can continue to grow on me over time.

Favs: “The Girl Who Sold Her Face,” “Eko,” “VV,” “Dudu,” “Evangelic Girl is a Gun”

Verdict: girl is a machine