There is making pop music, and then there is becoming a pop star. April Harper Grey, better known as underscores, seems determined to do both. Having started out making music in her childhood bedroom in San Francisco, she emerged with the internet-fuelled debut album “fishmonger” in 2021, before building an entire fictional Midwestern town around its ambitious 2023 follow-up, “Wallsocket”. Now, with her third album “U”, she has set her sights on something even bigger: pop music in all its extravagant, irresistible glory. And what a record it is. Written and produced entirely by Grey herself, “U” twists everything into songs that seem capable of changing direction at any second. Hooks arrive where you least expect them. Beats mutate. But behind the chaos there’s a remarkable sense of control. The result is one of 2026’s most acclaimed albums, a maximalist pop spectacle that feels unmistakably of the internet without being trapped by it. With underscores, the future of pop sounds gloriously unpredictable. And, perhaps most importantly, never boring.