Au/Ra first burst onto the scene with Panic Room in 2020, but much of the single’s momentum was lost to years-long label disputes. Now, though, she’s ready to step back out into the world with ‘Heartcore’, a debut album fuelled by a conceptual narrative centred on rage, vengeance and betrayal. 

Musically, it’s a scintillating blend of alt-pop, hyperpop and alt-rock. Opener The Descent mixes electronic textures with airy vocals and digitised strings, before thunderous lead single Crack! is underpinned by thrumming bass as Au/Ra intones: “I wanna punch the glass / I wanna kill the birds / I wanna take my fist / I wanna lick the blood.” 

This kind of vivid imagery is a constant throughout ‘Heartcore’, an album by an artist whose fantasy roots obviously run deep. This Is Character Building is a starkly confessional track, taking electronic sounds and making them so very human.

“Break your knife / Leave the blade inside / While you look me in the face / Tell me, is this character building?” she spits, while Last Heart’s thumping dancefloor rhythms and 8-bit interludes are also counterbalanced by a disarmingly emotional vocal performance.

Au/Ra’s love of video games shines through elsewhere, too, those console sounds folded into the wider sonic palette in another reminder that this is a world designed to help process her own experiences, particularly those when she was unable to release music under her own name. ‘Heartcore’ is a truly exciting reintroduction to an artist who has plenty more to say.