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In quick order, Addison Rae has turn out to be certainly one of Gen Z’s most chimeric rising stars. She’s a eager scholar of pop divas previous and current; a relentless nostalgia tactician, flaunting an outdated iPod Nano just like the coveted new influencer present; and a artistic coconspirator who final weekend joined Arca at Coachella to carry out their “Aquamarine” remix. Rae’s rose-colored imaginative and prescient of digital pop fits this shaky cultural second—it helps immensely that her featherlight music doubles as a smooth-brain launch from the anhedonia of day-to-day life in America. Welcome to the Addison Rae period, then, the place even the previous TikTok persona’s harshest skeptics (see: me) have taken to her eccentric singles, which pledge apparent fealty to titans like Britney and Madonna whereas reflecting Rae’s personal weird, infinite-scroll obsessions.
Take the opening seconds of “Headphones On,” the most recent style of Rae’s forthcoming debut. Pivoting away from Ray of Light cosplay and stacked James Blake-style synths, she introduces her most R&B-inspired observe but with a swell of pitch-shifted, ululating vocals. Filled out with vaporous, jewel-toned chimes and a hip-swaying bassline, “Headphones On” offers glimpses of Janet at her breathiest as Rae coos over an aerodynamic beat. Her lyrics zero in on music as an escape from emotional disaster, whether or not as seemingly superficial as evaluating herself to “the new it girl” or as heavy as mourning her dad and mom’ relationship. “Headphones On” provides a brand new wrinkle to the Addison Rae method, infusing her cotton-candy music with the type of vulnerability that may make it really feel like the surface world’s on mute.