stop and smell the lightning

annie hamilton’s second album follows through on the textural thrills of her 2022 debut album, *the future is here but it feels kinda like the past*. Reuniting with Methyl Ethel’s Jake Webb as a co-producer, the Sydney multi-hyphenate builds sonic playgrounds around songs that retain the spontaneity of voice memos and home demos. Set to a motorik pulse and citing a memorable scene in *Legally Blonde*, “DYNAMITE ●~\*” is hypnotic bubblegum centered on the refrain “You set me off like dynamite.” Equally heady is the stuttered pop of “without you,” a song about moving on after getting in a few final jabs (“Yeah, I still want you/But only for maybe an hour or two”). Other tracks here may be more mellow and diffuse, but the majority of them share a smeared, psychedelic quality that’s not limited to any one style or era. That said, the 73-second “crush song” is very ’90s, right down to the way noisier guitar kicks in partway through. Meanwhile, a brash bevy of layers adds a surreal edge to the empowering “slut era” and the loopy “talk”. Hamilton approaches indie pop as something tangible and always in motion, which makes for immersive listening.