Rapide-Fire Reviews: Hyperpop??? With Hannah Diamond, Tkay Maidza, & Frost Children

Each of these artists fit the "hyperpop" label to VERY different degrees. But I want to cover all of them before the year is out so lets get to it. 

Perfect Picture - Hannah Diamond

Hannah Diamond is perhaps the member of PC Music's inner circle that feels the most equipped to transcend hyperpop to something resembling genuine stardom. While she's flirted with it in the past, it also feels like she's never had her definitive moment. That's not to say I didn't enjoy her 2019 album Reflections, it just felt like it came late to the party to capitalize on the legitimate hype swirling around the distinct hyperpop sound it dabbles in. With the label itself now formally coming to an end, this feels like a potential swan song for one of the definitive acts to shine the brightest. It got off to a pretty great start too. I absolutely love the lead single Affirmations which sees Hannah at her peak pop instincts crafting a song that is both bubbly and fun but subtly inspiring. I also love the title track which kicks the record off with this blast of shimmering gorgeous girlish charm. Even the third single Poster Girl while not quite as dynamic as the first two still has a very memorable chorus and dazzling synths. 

Aside from the singles though, I don't find the rest of the first half of the album nearly as satisfying. The songs aren't bad but I think they get less interesting in both their sounds and sentiments. The best of the bunch is probably Impossible whose lovelorn sentimentalities come though loud and clear. I also appreciate how sparse the song is willing to get at particular points to heighten things. The second half does present more highlights though. No FX is an adorable song about being loved "with no effects" which is adorably contrasted with such highly synthetic music. Even though its more than a year and a half old her single Staring At The Ceiling pops up on the record and even though I don't like it as much as the more recent singles I do still enjoy the song. Unfortunately, the album also kind of leaves off with some of its weakest songs in Twisted and Divisible By Two, before concluding on the enjoyable Unbreakable. The album ends with the words "sometimes good things can come from an ending" which feels like more of a message to PC Music at large rather than just the album. But it makes me wish that we had gotten the definitely, transcendently great album from somebody in the PC Music camp that it felt like they were always flirting with making. 6/10

Sweet Justice - Tkay Maidza

Tkay Maidza has always felt underrated relative to her talent. She's both a gifted singer and her most intimate and R&B R&B-influenced and a hard-hitting rapper on her bangers. Both of her last two EPs showed that off perfectly and had me pretty excited for Sweet Justice. That anticipation translated into at least some of the singles. The Flume-produced Silent Assassin is a straight-to-the-point banger with appropriately wilder production than you normally hear Tkay over. WUACV is similarly direct but effective. And Out Of Luck sees Tkay recruiting the talents of Amber Mark and the two work well together. But beyond those singles, highlights on the record can be a bit more difficult to find. 

My issue with Sweet Justice isn't that it sounds bad, just predictable. The grey area between rap and R&B isn't anywhere near as mysterious as it used to be and Tkay isn't exploring it as creatively as she has in the past. Thankfully, she continues to be an extremely dynamic performer so even though I'm not crazy about the writing on songs like WASP or What Ya Know, her vocals are still absolutely great. There are some genuine highlights in the bunch too. Ghost! sees Tkay rapping and singing her own hook and both sound absolutely great, especially alongside the track's irresistible instrumental. I also like the impressively smooth Gone To The West which featured Duckwrth. But my biggest takeaway from the album is how Tkay suddenly sounds just like her contemporaries instead of breaking ground ahead of them. 5.5/10

Hearth Room - Frost Children

I've been meaning to cover Frost Children for over a year now but every time I passed it up, knowing that the prolific pair would release more material soon. Now with the duo embracing a version of their sound that is more airy and much more heavily emo-influenced, it feels like a good time to weigh in on a musical project I've been silently admiring for too long. That excitement kicked off with the earnest and deeply angsty Lethal which surprised me a lot as a lead single but grew on me more and more with every listen. I also learned to like the pop-punk-inspired Stare At The Sun whose playful instrumentation feels like it perfectly matches what makes the duo so uniquely charming. Among the tracks I heard before even hearing the record was also Marigold, who went lightly viral for basically lifting the hook from Olivia Rodrigo's lacy. It's admittedly a good chorus to take if you're into that brand of borrowing, I haven't had trouble swallowing my Olivia pride so far. 

One thing I've always admired about Frost Children is the variety of influences they clearly have and just how willing they are to follow them on a whim. That's on display even more on this album which feels like a step out of their comfort zone and yet they serve up one purely unique outing after another. While hearing something like the folky instrumentation on Bernadette might normally feel extremely out of left-field relative to some other songs here, the record has already primed you to expect the unexpected. With all its sonic dissolution what really holds the record together are its endlessly tight refrains. Even songs that I may not be head over heels for every element of the performance or instrumentation like Got Me By The Tail and Not My Fault absolutely soar with some excellent, wonderful hooks. Those hooks help iron out a LOT of the wrinkles across this record. I don't think it would do much good in a short form review to break down everything I didn't like about the record when catchy songwriting paints over so much of it immediately. The imperfections on the album while not exactly feeling intentional, certainly feel like they come with the territory of an undertaking like this. What results is an album whose stronger as a whole than any of its individual moments while also being one of the most interesting journeys Frost Children have taken listeners on yet. 7/10