I first heard googly eyes via a rewritten press release on The Line of Best Fit. “Internet Star” is a catchy, hooky, whimsical-sounding song that’s got a little hyperpop production weirdness under the surface. It was probably the laugh at the end that drew me in:

I did what I usually do — add the dozen or so most recent songs to the end of my eternal playlist, and let it surface when it does, away from whatever hype that’s happening that day. On Friday afternoon the songs hit the top of the queue, and it’s all I’ve listened to since. She’s got a lot of music out there, and it’s all unpredictable and unique, from both a production and lyrical angle.

Her Instagram is excellent, and I learned a ton about her that none of the recent media coverage incudes. It’s a good thing she likes to share.

googly eyes is a new incarnation for her. She released music as Deza for several years before this project, releasing fairly straightforward dance pop music, though with unusual vocals and production.

Her Substack has more details on the googly eyes persona:

Starting googly eyes was a hail-mary to repair my own love for making and a desperate attempt to reorient my sails. And here I am, a little bit later, with the pieces starting to soften into place in a really beautiful way…

She’s done everything on this project and discusses it in-depth in several fascinating Instagram posts. This Instagram post for example discusses the production of “Internet Star” — it’s longer than the song itself, but it alsomakes the song a lot richer, bringing out details and production notes that add depth to it.

Here’s her prior single, “Bareback on the Motherfucking Plains”. Similar style to “Internet Star” – that busy, glitchy hyperpop sound, rich production and attention-grabbing lyrics:

And again, a revealing Instagram post about what went into it. From this we also learn that she’s a trained opera singer. I could watch these posts all day. She also posts clips of pretty great hyperpop covers of Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Sabrina Carpenter and System of a Down (!?).

It’s really tough to pick what else to include here, so I’ll add three more of my favourites from her earlier releases. She’s been releasing demos for a little over a year now, and frankly calling them demos does them a disservice: these songs are every bit as polished as her commercial stuff. Here’s “Sex Sells”, from her EP 22-25 released in February this year, which is as catchy as anything I’ve heard:

Another one from that collection is called “Get Over Yourself, Kid”. I’ve added this to four different playlists over the weekend:

Those two and the other two songs on the EP were from an earlier release titled Demos 1-25, which is a brilliant collection of music on its own. “Put Something Nice on the TV” is just flawless, catchy, moody and hypnotic. It’s my favourite of that collection among many killer songs (“Control Freak”, “Left Lane”, and “Amalgamate” are also faves).

Her next EP Starlet is set for release on 27 September, on Pretty Swede Records. I’ll be waiting for the Instagram explainers.

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