You Can Be My Wave

Finally, 2023 has brought me the hyperpop album I wanted all year, and it comes by way of April Harper Grey (underscores), an artist I was not aware of until this project. Much like Jane Remover's 2021 album Frailty (which at the time I criminally undervalued) Wallsocket is multi-faceted, multi-phased, and there's a myriad of creative sonic details all over this thing. In addition to that, this album is somewhat of a conceptual epic as Grey spins many a tale within the fictional town of Wallsocket, Michigan. The pairings between lyrics and production are often very complimentary, making these songs feel larger than life and ready for the silver screen.

Wallsocket begins with a crunchy, peppy indie rock rager complete with loads of digital edits and harsh cuts. Grey performs with confidence and swagger as she narrates a life of white-collar crime. We get a pretty significant switch-up for the song's bridge. The tempo comes down considerably, we're introduced to a really catchy, fuzzy riff, and we also get some pretty soulful harmonies. This leads into a rather noisy solo as well as a little rhythmic metric modulation. The purpose I'm sure is to throw us off the character's trail. This track goes into Locals (Girls like us) which is a pretty rockin' piece of electropop. Grey delivers her lines with a fitting Kesha-like inflection and there are a few robotic vocal hooks that can back it up. There's even a moment that has some pretty aggressive gang vocals. It's kind of a banger.

Two really moody tracks follow, starting with the slow and lethargic Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I'll admit, I'm not all that satisfied with this track but it does have some neat instrumental elements, like the bit-crushed hi-hats and the sonic onslaught of crashing cymbals, distorted guitars, and belting vocals which serves as the track's climax. I'm much more over the moon with the very unsettling You don't know who I am. The foundation of this track is made up of a cycling set of affirmations and Grey's nocturnal bassline. Grey this time role plays as a stalker, listing off the various intimate details she knows about the subject. Despite knowing all this information, Grey's character makes a point to finish every couplet with the chilling declaration that the other party has zero awareness that they are even being stalked. There are additional elements that play with your head on this track. On one hand there are these dreamy and soothing synth pads, but on the other, are these dial tone blips that wreak havoc on my psyche. This song is simple and minimal, yet I am thoroughly captured.

Wallsocket's world continues to expand in peculiar directions with Shoot to kill, kill your darlings and Hollywood movie soundtrack. The former is a little ironic; an inner monologue about a high school jarhead set to a quirky indie-pop tune with jangly, chorused guitars, witchy synths, and random gun sounds for auxiliary percussion. This track features some of the album's most poignant verses. For example: "you're the son of a lawyer and the son of a doctor, with dreams of holding a gun and jumping out of a chopper, and everybody here is a poor kid right out of high school, but you're different from the rest of your peers, hell, you're the only one who knows why they're here," which I think very clearly commentates on skewed military demographics and exploitative recruitment strategies. The end of this song sucks you into a digital wormhole and spits you right into Hollywood movie soundtrack, another spacious and nocturnal cut that more closely aligns with the serious subject of gun violence and self-harm. The character Grey portrays gives school shooter vibes as she delivers cold lines like "aim for the head or go with the gut," or when repeating the refrain of "you won't get away with this."

I'll admit, I start to lose the narrative beyond this point, however, that is more so due to the fact that I become more engrossed in the instrumental production. The multi-part epic Geez louise switches things up unpredictably starting with a vexatious bit of sasscore complete with discordant guitar stabs and exasperated vocal deliveries. We then transition into some rugged acoustic country that features a guitar riff that was most certainly lifted from a Ford truck commercial and also has some galloping, brushed snare drum. This later breaks into a heavenly dream sequence where vocals soar and the reverb trails sizzle. The tune finishes with a minute of overwhelming walls of sound where cymbals crash, guitar leads swirl, and harsh digital pads rain down from above. Uncanny long arms, to a slightly lesser extent, are similarly multi-phased. Grey and her guest Jane Remover trade soft, yet passionate verses over a digital emo backdrop. Some glitchy elements lead us into another dreamy sequence with some wonderfully treated vocal performances before finishing off with a power pop, garage rock-like passage that also broaches that distorted wall of sound by the time the song reaches its conclusion.

The moments that didn't quite hit for me were pretty sparse. I had already mentioned feeling a little underwhelmed by Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, but Johnny johnny johnny was another tough pill to swallow. It has pretty decent funk-pop production and a nice groove, but the frank depictions of child grooming at the hands of our villain Johnny makes it really tough to get into the dancing spirit. Thankfully, our once naive protagonist comes to their senses and abandons Johnny before he is able to do any real physical damage. Still, these two tracks don't compare to my dislike of Old money bitch. It has an instantly dated late 90s pop sound accented with awful record scratching sounds, and lyrically comes across like a catty, Mean Girls scene that I have zero investment in.

Aside from those tracks, I am thoroughly impressed with this record. Grey plays around with so many different flavours of pop, rock, and electronic genres on Wallsocket, and nails it. This is an incredible feat considering that she essentially operates as a team of one. To create this expansive sonic world, and then populate it with these rich characters and stories all on your own is nothing short of a creative triumph. There's a couple underwhelming spots, and in my opinion, one awful track, but the rest is of such high quality that Wallsocket absolutely deserves to be included among the best albums of 2023.