John Mulaney said it best: “I can’t listen to any new songs. Because every new song is about how tonight is the night and we only have tonight.”

I am about to turn 22 years old. I was a child for the majority of this time, but through my limited recollection of the last couple of decades, I have decoded the following information: Everything is meaningless and all pop music sounds the same. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus — summer hits on the radio have always made me feel like I am stuck in a time loop of youthful angst. Then again, all of my articles are structured exactly the same but with different words. Anyway, unlike John Mulaney, I am not a millennial curmudgeon; I can change.

BENEE is just the pivot pop has needed. Her voice is unmatched and her sound is underrated. What really put her on the map was her breakout hit “Supalonely,” which she dropped around this time last year. No matter how cringey its accompanying TikTok dances were, this track is undeniably fun. It surely set a good precedent for the release of her debut album, “Hey u x,” which is quite a tour de force.

Right off the bat, my favorite track off of this LP is “Snail.” Smothered in heavy synth and staggered percussion, this song feels like a blast from the past. My favorite nuances of the production that went into this song are the brief yet bright Cowbell 808s in the chorus, made famous by Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).” Even though “Snail” seems to be a metaphor for the stagnation caused by quarantine, the happy tone of the song as a whole helps listeners feel an unlikely sense of optimism.

“Hey u x” is certainly no stranger to party anthems. One song that really stood out to me was “Plain,” with an incredible feature from Flo Milli. The way BENEE’s melancholy yearnings contrast with Flo Milli’s effortless flow blends very well into the booming bass of the track’s background production. Another contender in my opinion is “Sheesh,” featuring none other than Grimes herself. Fast-paced, high octane, electric — this track feels like playing a neon-clad level of “Sonic the Hedgehog” on the Sega Genesis, and I cannot stop listening. Between dipping into hip-hop and hyperpop, respectively, BENEE’s voice is versatile enough to genre hop as much as she pleases. 

In the spirit of genre hopping, I cannot help but comment on “Happen To Me.” It is so delightfully sad, yet I derive happiness from how beautiful it sounds. Led by consistent lo-fi guitar licks and a fast yet soft snare drum foundation, this song is a blissfully cool nod to the plights of overthinking with a softcore surf rock sound unlike any other. “Happen To Me” is the perfect song to listen to when you are sad but introspective enough to hope for a better day.

I enjoyed “Hey u x” from start to finish. BENEE is an incredibly talented artist and deserves all the praise that she receives. She subtly crosses genre lines while maintaining her own unique brand of authenticity, something The 1975 tried, but failed, to do on their latest album, “Notes on a Conditional Form.” Not even Matty Healy can pull off putting shoegaze, house and country on the same album. The way I see it, post-Y2K pop can be one of two things: bad or BENEE.