Anyone expecting a fully club-oriented sound, or even something closer to hip-hop, won’t quite find it here. Instead, alongside producers Karma Kid and Casey MQ, Shygirl has made an experimental pop album that draws on alternative sources from the 1990s, above all British trip-hop and breakbeat, and in doing so rises to the same level of aesthetic daring as contemporaries such as Charli XCX, FKA twigs, and Arca.

Opening track “Alyse” dives deep into the trip-hop treasure chest, packed with ’90s textures but carrying the atmosphere of 2020s dancefloors. The standout “Lucky[Hymn]” goes deeper still. Here, Shygirl seems fully immersed in the persona of an artist from the ’90s alternative scene, as if fulfilling a childhood dream. It’s interesting that she arrives at that dream after having played the best clubs and parties around the world, and the lyric reads like a prayer of gratitude. On the surface it's a starry-eyed song about love – as almost all of 's runtime is – but the violence of the video (continuing the visual story of "Alyse") suggests a whole other reading.

Then comes a twist that few could have predicted. “Luvli” heads into indie rock, with a distorted bassline and sparse vocals. “Submit” pushes a similar indie approach almost to the edge of hyperpop, showing once again that Shygirl can take any specific genre and make it bend to her will, just as she did on .

The production trio reaches its full potential on “Live the Life You Like”, a track that seems to live in the mind of someone who grew up on The Prodigy but also understands the impact of artists like Tinashe and Dorian Electra. “Real” is pop that only sounds traditional because the road was paved by , while “Déjà Vu” showcases ’s sky-high technical standards, with a fast beat, original use of samples, and a wealth of noisy elements.

“Mantra” returns to the club sound that probably introduced Shygirl to most of her listeners, setting density and speed against more isolated vocals, renewing trip-hop through the lens of dancefloor culture. On “Altar”, Shygirl's vocals, thick with layers and reverb, command centre stage before elapsing into beats that set the scene for "Sublime", where reverb-soaked electric guitar riffs wail out over a steady acoustic guitar base. Closing track “Eternal” once again fuses trip-hop atmospherics with long, repetitive melodic lines, stirring memories for anyone who lived through the ’90s.

Lyrically, is brutally romantic. Having turned 30 while writing the record, Shygirl revisits her past to write love songs with far more depth than her younger self could reach. The result is quite original and points toward new directions for experimental pop, one where indie-heads and clubbers can meet. “This record is my message in a bottle,” Shygirl says. “Let’s see who picks it up.”