After years of grinding in New York’s experimental jazz and hip-hop scenes, the Chicago-born musician self-released her debut album, 2020’s *Forever, Ya Girl*, whose heady blend of R&B, bedroom pop, and electronics made KeiyaA a critical darling and underground star. The 33-year-old polymath struggled with the pressure of following up her breakthrough, meanwhile processing what it meant to be a public figure. On her second album, *hooke’s law* (her first for XL Recordings), KeiyaA breaks free of expectations, both external and self-imposed, instead channeling feelings of anger, sadness, and desire on shifting, self-produced compositions where jazz, hip-hop, and cutting-edge club music coexist. On “take it,” lusty come-ons are interrupted here and there by blustering DJ drops and sounds of shattered glass, while “i h8 u” is an acid-house diss track to, among others, her landlord (“The whole system is a scam/No more suffering is the plan”). Elsewhere, she grapples with breakups and meditates on ennui, pulling herself out of a funk on “until we meet again” to repeat like a mantra “I can start again.”
