Listen "Out" music reviews for April 2026

 - by Jason Drewry
   Music Critic

Agnes - BEAUTIFUL MADNESS

Few pop reinventions in the last decade have been as satisfying as Agnes’ pivot into sleek, spiritual disco. On BEAUTIFUL MADNESS, the Swedish singer pushes that transformation further inward, trading some of the widescreen euphoria of 2021’s Magic Still Exists for something stranger, moodier, and more intimate.

The album moves like a late-night DJ set that occasionally drifts into meditation. Tracks like BALENCIAGA COVERED EYES and EGO glide on pulsing synths and minimalist beats, while her voice takes center stage and sounds expressive and elastic. The standout track TRIGGER captures the album’s ethos: the tension between restraint and release.

Not everyone may love the structure; BEAUTIFUL MADNESS is brief, and its string interludes can feel like atmospheric sketches rather than fully formed songs. But it’s this looseness that also gives the record room to breathe.

In the end, BEAUTIFUL MADNESS lives up to its title - an imperfect, searching pop album that finds its real beauty in the spaces between the beats.

Chrissy Chlapecka – Andromeda  

If you like Lady Gaga, Teena Marie, and drag queens (in no particular order) - Chrissy Chlapecka should be on your radar as the hottest (and hardest working) new indie pop star. On her new single Andromeda, the fuscia-haired diva doubles down on the ultraglossy, “bimbocore” persona that made her a cult internet sensation –  except this time the sound feels bigger, sleeker, and maybe even cheekier. 

Constructed around shimmering synths, a disco-funk shuffle, and an irresistible hook, Andromeda is space-age kitsch that’s firmly in on the joke: campy, dramatic, and knowingly over-the-top. Her vocal delivery oscillates between wink-wink, nudge-nudge and full-throttle dancefloor maven. 

The best part is how confidently she’s committed to the bit. The song’s cosmic imagery and maximalist production are perfect for the drag bar or the concert stage.  

If Andromeda is any indication, her star will definitely be on the ascent from here. 

Peach PRC – Porcelain 

Peach PRC has crafted a pop persona out of glitter, bubblegum hooks, and a rather aggressively pink internet fairy aesthetic. But on her debut Porcelain, the Australian singer-songwriter peels back the sparkle just enough to bare the nerves underneath. 

Sonically, the record leans into glossy euro-pop and early-2000s revivalism (Back To You), with shimmering synths, punchy dance beats, and melodies that are equally at home as late-night emotional spirals or euphoric dancefloor release. Tracks like Out Loud anchor the album’s emotional core, turning secret love and quiet desperation into full-throated confession. 

The album avoids coming off like a Y2K-pop throwback thanks to Peach PRC’s sharp self-awareness. Her hyper-fem fairy fantasy world remains intact (fans will easily find flashes of camp and sugar-rush theatrics). Still, the songs dig deeper into questions around identity, forlorn love, and the messy work of becoming yourself in public. It appears delicate on the surface, but the real strength is in the cracks and how she lets them show.  

Willa Ford – amanda  

For anyone who remembers the early 2000s pop explosion, Willa Ford blew in as one of its cheekier provocateurs. Her bratty hit I Wanna Be Bad made her briefly unavoidable on TRL, all glossy attitude and sly sexuality. More than two decades later, amanda (her given name) returns to that persona, albeit with a different kind of confidence. 

The album toggles between playful (at times downright weird) pop excess and unexpectedly vulnerable self-reflection. Songs like Burn Burn and Flex lean into swaggering, club-ready energy, while deeper cuts like Safe With Me and How Do You Like Me Now reveal the emotional terrain underneath - trauma, healing, and the strange work of rebuilding.  

What makes amanda compelling isn’t nostalgia, though. Ford clearly remembers the glossy theatrics of her early career. Still, she’s not chasing them so much as using that language - campy hooks, slick synths, bratty humor – as a frame for something actually reflective under all the oddball pop eccentricities.  

The Gayly online. 4/27/26 @ 2:57 p.m. CST.