Gush

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s steady evolution from the neo-New Age of albums like 2016’s *EARS* to the flirty effusions of 2025’s *Gush* actually makes a lot of sense: In every case, Smith comes off as a composer preoccupied with the bodily possibilities of synthetic sound, never mind whether that body is upright on the stationary bike, seated on the meditation mat, or supine on linen sheets. The clublike psychedelia of “Gush” and “Both” feel new for her, spurts of romantic attraction that coalesce into the pulse of something like love, but it’s her sense of play—of the celebratory, almost childlike possibilities behind her high-tech sound—that holds it all together (“Lay Down,” “The World Just Got a Little More Big”).

On her most social, libidinal collection of songs to date, the Los Angeles musician combines cerebral synthesis with beats inflected by two-step, dancehall, and ballroom.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's artistic profundity continues to beam with ambition, with GUSH warranting rhapsodic praise.