Having famously discarded an entire mainstream pop album to avoid becoming a “main pop girl,” Jane Remover offers a tantalizing glimpse of that potential with the six-song EP, ♡. This collection, full of fresh hooks and dance-inspired beats, validates the 22-year-old’s claim as a masterful pop crafter, demonstrating an ability to translate their wide-ranging tastes into wildly imaginative packages.
The EP quickly proves its dance bona fides. “Magic I Want U” is a euphoric blend of a loose Think break, VST guitars, and synths, feeling indebted to both ’90s freestyle and peers like underscores. The standout “Music Baby” is built around a romantic Jersey club groove that pays sincere homage to protogenitors like DJ Tameil, avoiding the current mainstream abstraction of the genre.
Jane Remover is not afraid to co-opt recent trends, either; “Flash in the Pan” begins as a queerification of Cash Cobain’s “sexy drill” groove before collapsing into noisy digital shoegaze. However, not every risk gels; the reggaeton influence on “How to Teleport” feels out of place. The EP then slows down with “Dream Sequence,” an alt-rock meditation that acts as a tasteful, Parannoul-esque palette cleanser, albeit one that revisits old material.
Despite featuring numerous small reworks of older tracks—a practice Jane Remover seems to pursue as an ongoing digital thought experiment—the quality of the material remains high. ♡ is full of delicious moments, from the falsetto runs on “Magic I Want U” to the pervasive scratching across the EP. By delivering familiar themes of young love and partying with a playful juvenility, Jane Remover makes the emotional expression on ♡ feel novel and leaves listeners wondering about the limitless possibilities of their pop prowess.
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