Album Review: Hayley Kiyoko Lives Up to Great "Expectations"

If your fans called you "Lesbian Jesus", you’d name your first album Expectations too.

Getting taken seriously as a female artist in pop is a herculean task. It’s doubly difficult if you’re also an actor and triply so if you starred in Scooby Doo movies.

If your brand of music isn’t dismissed as unserious from the outset, the next hurdle becomes claiming credit for writing and production. And if you don’t move enough product, you’re labelled a flop, alongside other diverse talents (see: Katy, Lorde, Kesha, Miley, Gaga, Carly, Taylor and an entire graveyard of abandoned talents, because the industry abhors a non-charting, oxymoronic popstar).

The sexist double standard suggests male artists don’t ‘flop’, because male artists make 'art', while female artists make 'pop', which is designed specifically to sell, rather than be appreciated and carefully considered. Of course, as anyone who has heard Jack White’s calamitous recent solo effort can confirm: Not always, bra! Give us the works of Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello and, now, 26-year-old Hayley Kiyoko, any day of the week instead.

Kiyoko completes a ten-year circuit of being taken seriously with her dreamy debut album Expectations, following on from her origins in a constructed girl band, and a period spent playing Velma in made-for-TV Scooby Doo mysteries. She’s earned millions of views on YouTube for her self-directed 'late night in Los Angeles' music videos, bringing to life her queer anthems for a ravenous Tumblr audience. See, Hayley Kiyoko is already a star, and on the self-assured Expectations, you can tell.

She opens with a lush "Overture", before barrelling into the bass-driven groove of "Feelings", with its spitfire refrain: "I laugh about it, dream about that casual touch". (One track later, on "What I Need", Kehlani provides the assist on a similarly-spat chorus.) The transition mirrors Tove Lo’s salvos from her sex-positive Lady Wood and Blue Lips, as well as Halsey’s "Prologue" from Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. As on those records, Kiyoko never suggests what she’s fixated on goes above the primal, carnal and confessional, but the baroque intro suggests those feelings are substantial enough for appreciation, and the irresistible hooks aren’t signifiers of something frivolous: they’re a feature.

The early, radio-friendly tunes are interrupted by two musical suites that slow down momentum, before making way for "Curious", which sees Kiyoko twisting the title to confront a straight girl about her teased (maybe fake) bi-curiosity. It also capitalises on Kiyoko’s favourite kind of chorus: a speedy, trilled lyrical run-up to the song title, delivered deliberately on an isolated and sparse musical bed. Here, she asks, "I’m just curious, are you serious?" and the sudden sonic emptiness feels like the eternal dot-dot-dot in a text chain.

Kiyoko repeats the themes and musical techniques of "Curious" on the finger-plucked "He’ll Never Love You (HNLY)", which is no lovesick ballad. Kiyoko’s insistent delivery hardly depicts someone kept up at night pining over anyone. “I left a mark on your neck I know that you won’t forget,” she begins, wrapping the first verse with, "Why don’t you just cut the s***?"

Then comes "Palm Dreams", with its Bruno Mars bass lines and backup singers, and Frank Ocean-esque nostalgia for Californian time-wasting. It’s the best showcase for Kiyoko’s low-key vocals. When she stretches on "Molecules", you can hear the strain, though, as with much of her relatable, IDGAF persona, that’s all part of the appeal.

This is Hayley Kiyoko, we’re reminded across Expectations. You don’t name your closing song "Let It Be" unless you feel pretty confident about your ability to leave a lasting impression. And that she does.

3.5/5

Expectations is now available. 

Photo: Empire