Laptop Music-alum Hannah Diamond returns with her new album Excellent Photo, as well as new records from Drake, Omar Apollo, COUCOU CHLOE, Dorian Electra and Sufjan Stevens
Just a handful of weeks in the past, Hannah Diamond observed herself in a little bit of a Twitter storm. The singer had just introduced “Poster Girl”, the fourth one from her luminous new album Perfect Picture, and posted the single’s artwork on her Instagram. Some eagle-eyed net sleuths have been keen to position out that the deal with art shared some similarities with Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson’s 2021 LP, also termed Poster Woman. Despite the fact that not specifically alike, equally superior-gloss, hyper-femme photos clearly show the singers in their respective “bedrooms”, reclining on pink satin sheets, posters of by themselves adorning the partitions. “She gained the idgaf war,” was Larsson’s admittedly really amusing reaction, when one of her followers tagged her in a facet-by-aspect.
Soon after this, Diamond headed to Instagram, enhancing the caption of her authentic write-up to deal with Larsson right. “I completely accept the overlaps in between our function so I’d like to take a minute to give some qualifications to my selections for making and placing this graphic out in the world,” she started. “My new album is about checking out girlhood and its different expressions in pop culture… about unpacking all the elements of my new music and pictures profession since 2013 that have led me to in which I am now. It is a celebration of the perform I have manufactured that has motivated so substantially of the visible aesthetics of the earth of underground and mainstream pop right now.” Larsson responded in the remarks, admitting she felt “really genuinely sad” when she noticed Diamond’s artwork, but now “I’ve completed my analysis I can see that even nevertheless I didn’t have you on my temper board, the photographers that I have seemed up to… certainly, unquestionably, did!”
Diamond’s response strike the nail on the head. Even though Twitter stans in Pop Crave replies tried to make the trade about a thing totally distinct – specifically, beef between two feminine pop stars – Diamond de-escalated the situation, calmly and eloquently reminding us that her vision was the blueprint. The whole aesthetic that Larsson experienced adopted for her second album could be traced again to Diamond and her Personal computer New music compatriots, solidifying the fact that the label has been steadily and greatly influencing pop considering that its 2013 launch. Now, a decade afterwards, Diamond’s Excellent Photograph is that Hd-ready vision arrive to existence.
On the record, the singer grapples with the tug-of-war among fantasy and fact, a fantasy that she from time to time feels complicit in developing. “I try out to boost transparency/So I can see by the fantasy/I believe I need to hit delete/But it can be all imaginary,” she sings on the syrupy title observe. The very same sentiment is echoed on “Poster Girl”, when Diamond admits that “When I focus on what’s fantastic/I by no means discover that it’s the imperfections/In moments that make existence so really worth it.” Fifth keep track of “Impossible” sees Diamond photoshop her personal great associate (“All the levels are thoroughly clean/Not a single imperfection”), but ultimately is aware that the perfection is futile (“You glance true to me/Why do you have to be unachievable?”). Reality starts to seep in on the glimmering “No FX”, the place Diamond understands “in my coronary heart/You see me with no Fx”, but it is the closing monitor, the stirring pop ballad “Unbreakable” where Diamond learns she “don’t will need no one at all”. “Model new starts aren’t generally a bad factor,” she sings, ideally. “Sometimеs good matters occur from an ending.”
In other news, Drake is back with his eighth studio album For All The Canines, Dorian Electra delivers an electrifying new file, and Sufjan Stevens returns with the heartfelt Javelin.
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