Charli xcx was not, and still is not, the biggest artist in the world when she released ‘BRAT’ in 2024, but that wouldn’t stop her from becoming a cultural zeitgeist. That album, and the following ‘BRAT summer’ movement, has pushed hyperpop and experimental electronica into the mainstream, expanding what a festival-headlining pop megastar can look like: the door has been left open for a new era of artists, and it’s Catherine Garner who’s stepped through. The new Slayyyter album ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA’ is packed with all the sleazy lyrical nods and hazy club beats to capture the moment.

Slayyyter’s work is boldly and confidently counter-culture, to the extent of describing itself as “a recession indicator” on ‘$T. LOSER.’ The record is packed with flagrant displays of hedonism, clearly revelling in the immediate pleasures of nightclub culture, drug usage and sex— in that way, the album reads like a series of half-remembered nights out from Garner, who makes her own position abundantly clear on the intensely arrogant ‘I’M ACTUALLY KINDA FAMOUS.’ ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA’ is clearly intended to soundtrack the youthful misadventures of a modern generation, as evidenced by its emphasis on bold bass hits and crushing, almost industrial crescendos. Aside from the odd detour (looking at you ‘UNKNOWN LOVERZ’), this is an album begging you to crank the volume up and lose yourself in the dizzying energy of its hyperpop influences and in the intensity of its loudest moments: the first track here is literally named ‘DANCE…,’ even if that song is oddly tame compared to what’s to come.

A record this focused on the in-the-moment experience will live or die by the quality of its soundscapes, which makes the raucous presentation Slayyyter opts for here all the more enticing. There’s an immediacy to the pulsing synths that score ‘CRANK’ that absolutely pulls you in, like you can’t help but lose yourself in the audaciousness of what you’re hearing: the album hardly requires some award-worthy vocal performance from Garner, but the abundant character of her voice goes a long way to selling the carefree bounce of ‘OLD TECHNOLOGY’ and the awesome dance aesthetic of ‘BEAT UP CHANEL$.’ From a technical standpoint, Slayyyter far outpaces her contemporaries for the sheer thrill of her synth tones and booming bass parts— the album is always at its best when it’s indulging in the grimy textures and neon-lit vibes of a back-alley club (or, to put it another way, it’s a case of ‘the louder the better’). The ending of ‘YES GODDD’ is so unabashedly epic as it harken back to a classic like Justice’s ‘Cross’ from 2007: as far as influences go in this lane, that’s pretty much the gold standard, and Slayyyter pulls it off extremely well.

Where do you take an album with such a simple premise, then? That’s the question that plagues ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA,’ and the problem that ends up undercutting it. The suite of production choices on offer here may be a cut above, but even they will grow stagnant at a certain point: tied up in these themes of hedonism and thoughtless indulgence as they are, a number of these songs don’t really have room to grow into anything past a surface-level thrill. Whenever Slayyyter gives your eardrums a break, the record tends to suffer for it— a cut like ‘CANNIBALISM!’ carries an interesting enough top line to weather the storm, but the same cannot be said for the so-so dance beats of ‘OLD FLING$’ or the oddly indie-influenced closer ‘BRITTANY MURPHY.’ To return to our Justice comparison, Garner takes her foot off the gas much more readily than the French duo, and in doing so, she exposes some of the emptiness disguised beneath. ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA’ is like a bonkers rollercoaster: it can only really be appreciated in the moment.

Slayyyter’s third record is her best yet, and the praise it’s been reaping as of late is well deserved: this is a project that wraps around you, demanding your attention completely. It’s not the deepest experience out there, and that really shows in its weaker moments— once this review is done, it’s probably the blaring climaxes of ‘CRANK,’ ‘YES GODDD’ and ‘OLD TECHNOLOGY’ we’ll be returning to most readily, with some lesser cuts falling to the wayside. Garner may still have room to grow, but that’s no problem at all: this current wave of hyperpop madness shows no signs of slowing down.