This week we have a new track from the um… not an underrated popstar, Alice Longyu Gao. I’m not typically one for hyperpop-adjacent music, but I did become a partial convert last year when I got addicted to Dorian Electra’s My Agenda. That record was a catchy and blood-pumping group of pop songs that eviscerate incel culture and have fun doing it. “Underrated Popstar” is very much in a similar musical vein, so it’s unsurprising that it was first featured at Dorian Electra’s My Agenda ONLINE stream event last year. Now, the song has finally hit streaming platforms, and it’s glorious.
Hot off the heels of a similarly hard-hitting collaboration with Alice Glass, “Underrated Popstar” is furiously sassy and endlessly catchy. Alice’s cartoonish self-aggrandizement is infectious on its own, mostly because Alice isn’t wrong about having an “Impressive sound like no one else.” At the same time, there is a lot of anxiety mixed in that pumps up the stress levels. Alice wants to “Be an icon” but makes a passing wish–“Don’t flop“–in the same breath.
In the song’s bridge, Alice ponders, “What do I do if I never pop off, fold tacky socks at the local Walmart?” Maybe it’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the way the instrumental gets really aggressive afterwards makes it feel like a genuine bit of concern. What I can say is, there’s a heck of a lot of talent at play here, be it the superb vocal performance or the nightmarishly aggressive beat. For the world’s sake I hope Alice’s career does pop off as hard as this song does.
Amped! 