Underscores, or April Harper Grey, is a household name for most hyper-pop and digi-core listeners. Her music borders on being revolutionary, pushing the boundaries of what tracks can sound like and how creative an album rollout can be. Her 2023 project, Wallsocket, is her most ambitious project to date, with underscores creating a whole ARG (Alternate Reality Game) alongside the album itself, complete with a fake website for a fictional town. Her passion for music and wild imagination fosters a raw creativity, one that makes underscores stand out among other artists of her kind.
[ 'Music' Single Cover ]
On June 27th, underscores released her newest single ‘Music’, which is packed to the brim with a sheer power that knocks you completely off your feet. From the second the track starts, you’re greeted with a heavy-hitting bass that feels like a stream of bullets directly hitting your soul. The thumping bass dominates the track, providing a simple and flat foundation for underscores vocals to really shine on, especially within the prechorus when she taps into this higher register.
The limited instrumentation within the verses works well when working up to the chorus as well, allowing for the ambient and drawn-out “Music” to hit a lot harder, leaving a lasting impact. It feels like this relief of sorts, tying in with the storytelling laid within the lyrics. Where the harsh bass may represent the overthinking, the worry, the feeling of ‘crushing’ on someone, the magic within the chorus feels like that moment where you lock eyes or spend time with someone you love, the person who makes things “feel like music.”
The highlight of the track for me is the build-up into the drop. Listening to the way the synths layer with every repeat of “Pop, rock, electronic, rap, rock n' roll, Nonstop, avant garde, talking on the phone”, then catching how the drums slide their way into place, before the entire track finally erupts into a beautiful mess of music after a very well placed ad-lib from an older underscores track ‘Grunk’. The cherry on top is the cathartic, near-screaming number that underscores does at the end, passionately declaring “it’s everything to me”.
‘Music’ is absolutely perfect for all the lovers, music lovers, and everyone in between. It’ll get you imagining you’re one of the dancing iPod silhouettes from the early 2000s. Truly, though, there’s nothing within the music industry right now that comes sonically close to ‘Music’, making it this insane force of disruption, a track that should make other musicians worried and fans excited for what’s to come.
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