Underscores - U
underscores invites listeners into a euphoric, vibrant, and kaleidoscopic world of electropop on her third studio album.
At this point, it seems there’s nothing April Harper Grey can’t do. With every new release, underscores reinvents both herself and her vision of contemporary music. Her third studio album, U, leaves behind much of the indie rock and indietronica influence that shaped her earlier work, confidently stepping into the realm of modern electronic pop.
The opening track, “Tell Me (U Want It)”, channels the explosive energy of PC Music’s golden era. Bright, loud, and delightfully fractured, it serves as the perfect introduction to underscores’ more pop-oriented direction. Here, she practically invites listeners into her eccentric new universe, eager to know whether they want it as much as she does. It’s followed by “Music”, a bass-heavy anthem that seems to collapse under its own weight while continuing to establish the album’s tone. The track is an irresistibly catchy ode to music itself, with Grey admitting that it remains the defining force in her life—regardless of genre or style.
Naturally, a record like this leaves room for reflections on luxury and excess. On “Hollywood Forever“, steeped in the glossy electropop aesthetics of the 2000s, underscores appears to argue with someone who constantly criticizes her materialism, arrogance, and fondness for expensive things. In the chorus, she counters that everyone is “so Hollywood” in the end. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all participate in the same consumerist culture, making her accuser just as complicit as she is.
One of the album’s most subdued moments arrives with “The Peace”, a song built primarily around layered vocal samples. Its central phrase, “I just wanna share the peace with you”, carries an intriguing double meaning. On the surface, it expresses a desire for harmony, but the phrase takes on a darker resonance when viewed through the lens of the cigarette brand. The song explores the lengths people will go to in order to keep someone close, even when they know it may hurt both parties. Grey finds herself trapped in a familiar cycle: mirroring another person, suppressing her own opinions, and agreeing with everything simply to avoid losing them. Even knowing it may only make matters worse, she admits she still wants them to stay.
As the album progresses, its musical influences continue to multiply. “Innuendo (I Get U)” sounds as if A. G. Cook remixed classic R&B hits by Timbaland. Tense and restrained at first, the song eventually erupts into a dramatic climax. Lyrically, it explores the experience of being drawn to someone despite fully understanding their patterns and recognizing that they may only be interested in something casual. Grey sees through every trick, yet chooses to keep playing along because the attraction is impossible to ignore. Like the title suggests, everything remains implied rather than spoken outright.
“Lovefield”, a tribute to K-pop, unfolds with a hypnotic and understated atmosphere. It examines the emotional reality of being stuck in the friend zone, with Grey’s unfiltered vocals mourning unrequited affection. The title itself functions as a variation on the same concept. From there, the album transitions into one of its most infectious highlights: the bold and playful “Do It”, a track destined to become a favorite among club enthusiasts. It’s a phenomenal pop banger that finds underscores at her most confident, blending the strongest elements of classic hits by Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.
The following “Bodyfeeling” carries echoes of Caroline Polachek’s art-pop sensibilities. It explores the state of loving someone so intensely that you deliberately ignore reality in favor of fantasy—until reality inevitably crashes down and forces you to confront the consequences of that denial. “Wish U Well”, meanwhile, captures the pain of meeting someone you still love and realizing they have already moved on. Grey tries to convince herself that she wishes them happiness, but deep down she remains unable to let go. The song balances denial, hope, and quiet heartbreak in equal measure. She knows there is no way back, yet she cannot abandon those lingering feelings. It’s a beautiful composition, like a comet tearing across the night sky before disappearing forever.
On U, underscores demonstrates a remarkable command of genre and style. It is a vivid, exuberant, and deeply personal record, filled with reflections on love, consumer culture, and the realities of life as a pop star. What makes the album particularly compelling is Grey’s ability to draw from familiar musical touchstones while simultaneously pushing them toward something futuristic. Euphoric, candid, and surprisingly restrained when necessary, U is constantly in motion—never content to stay in one place for long.
8.0/10
