Punchy snares, melodic synth, and melancholy lyrics of heartbreak blend together into the blurred layers of hyperpop artist juno’s latest project, ‘teeth.’ With all eight tracks stylized completely in lowercase and only running a total of about sixteen minutes, the composition of the project is a poster child of current hyperpop.
The opening track, “areyouhome?” lies somewhere between the early 2000s club scene and modern digicore. With a consistently punchy drum loop and misleadingly upbeat lyrics about lost love in a party scene, the track sets the tone of obscure nostalgia in an environment of fast-paced glitchy beats. The following track, “boyfriend,” immediately poses an entirely new energy, with pop-punk inspired guitars that reach an ambient break after the first chorus.
Track 5, “addiction,” similarly to ericDOA’s “plea” on his project ‘COA,’ stands as the hyperpop artist’s token acoustic-leaning ballad on the otherwise energetic project, creating an attention grabbing break from the synthetic noises as juno ruminates on isolation and the plights of young heartbreak.
As an avid hyperpop fan since the genre began to shift directions in the beginning of 2020, “parasthesia,” grabbed my attention the most prominently through the glitchy synths, late 2010’s-esque grunge lyrics (“cigarettes and Hollywood dreams/you ask me if I like the life,”) and trippy breakdown that closes out the track.
Overall, I would put 'teeth' at a solid 3.5/5. After sifting through some of juno’s other popular releases, such as “hero” and “insomnia” with AViT, I found this release to stand as a shifting point for juno as he solidified his style within more genres & serves as a great example for the direction a lot of hyperpop artists are growing into as the genre continues to expand.
On June 25, juno will begin a mini United States summer tour of five stops. Tickets and further information for the tour can be found here.
Written by Tessa Wessel