Hyperpop has become a driving force in electronic music, and whenever a trend takes hold you know that K-pop is lurking right around the corner, ready to pounce on it. Yves has gone full bore into the genre with her new album, crafting the kind of quirky soundscapes the internet seems to love even as they often leave me cold. Title track Soap is another song that leaves me scratching my head and wondering what the big deal is.
Opening with a sample from Rebecca Black’s Sugar Water Cyanide (off her incredible 2025 EP), Soap is eager to prove its bonafides. Yves has even invited the very popular trendsetter PinkPantheress as duet partner. In short, this collaboration is a terminally-online pop fan’s dream. As an actual song, Soap works a lot less for me. Strip away some of its more interesting sonic touchstones and it’s doing what so many girl group songs have done this year. The percussion gives a familiar early-2000s bounce, the airy vocals serve icy cool rather than emotional resonance and the melodies are slight and repetitive. The song feels like one idea repeated over and over until we reach the two-and-a-half minute mark and the music simply… ends.
Fans of Soap will likely point to its texture, but to me this feels more like style over substance. And really, I don’t think the textures are all that interesting. Maybe if Brat had never happened and this sound wasn’t already so saturated, Soap would feel more thrilling. As it stands, it’s another track to add into my “nice to admire, hard to love” bin.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
