It’s hard to not feel a certain whimsy when listening to Underscores’ (real name April Harper Grey) third album, U. It’s a confident evolution from her 2020 EP Character Development!, with Grey producing an utterly refined sound that encapsulates the highs of the 2010 pop, bro-step and bubblegum bass eras. Perhaps if Charli XCX’s 2024 Brat began to zhuzh up the plains of pop music, U suggests Grey may be the architect to fully transform the tundras into the futuristic metropolis needed in pop music right now.
The aesthetic foundations for U have been visible for some time. Back in November 2024, Grey released a cover of Imogen Heap’s 2005 electropop banger ‘Headlock’ on her Soundcloud, where she simultaneously interpolated Skrillex’s 2010 smash hit ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Spirites’.
Here, ‘The Peace’ manipulates vocal chops in line with Clams Casino’s previous production work incorporating Heap’s vocals, but with more of a maximalist approach. Grey channels the production power of A.G. Cook, simultaneously invoking the emotion of Heap’s often tender vocal performances, wrapping her voice in a gauze of yearning: “I don’t speak unless I’m spoken too … I just wanna keep the peace with you”.
Tracks like ‘Innuendo (I Get U)’ and ‘Tell Me (U Want It)’ best show the 2010 bro-step influence on Grey. The former begins with laser synth stabs and high-pitched shots of ‘I Get- I Get-’, a distinct tone shift from prior track ‘The Peace’, instantly teasing the future-bass hardwiring of this track, a sound Skrillex is particularly well versed in. ‘Innuendo (I Get U)’ augments Grey’s ability to produce pure dance floor madness similarly to ‘Hollywood Forever’, which shifts from a bubblegum bass drop to a Jersey club section all within five minutes – and it works a treat.
Let’s stay on the topic of ‘drops’. Half of ‘Music’, the lead single, is full of crunchy synths being chopped up by anthemic breaks of Grey crooning “music”, before building to a full fledged explosion of a bass drop, marked by the tag of “We don’t give a fu–” (the same sample is used in Skrillex’s remix of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born this Way’). After listening repeatedly, this tag tends to provoke a reaction similar to that of one of Pavlov’s dogs, but instead of salivating, you get a major serotonin spike.
Whilst this album marks a huge aesthetic shift from the prior Wallsockets (2023) and Fishmonger (2021), tracks like ‘Bodyfeeling’ and ‘Wish U well’ feel like they could slide into those tracklists seamlessly, whilst also feeling wholeheartedly at home on U.
U certainly offers a warm hug to those who fondly remember the iTunes era and pop music of the 2000s and 2010s whilst craving it with a burst of nostalgia. Surely, the album heralds the breakout of Underscores as a major popstar.
