NEW RELEASE: Panorama - Hayley Kiyoko

 Hayley Kiyoko is a very mixed bag for me. I like her earlier work more than what she did recently. Expectations as an album did practically nothing for me. I have hopes for this that maybe she can draw me back in. 

I am already not impressed to hear her usually good voice super filtered with "Sugar at the Bottom". Who thought pitching her voice like this would be a GOOD idea? 

The way "Luna" is starting is making me question myself. For putting myself through this right after Beyonce's mid-release. 

"For the Girls" was a single and it isn't terrible. It is just kind of generic and forgettable cookie cutter pop. 

"Flicker Start" is not great, but it is the first step in the right direction. You can hear her voice more. The lyrics aren't terrible. 

"Underground" started off really good. Then she did that chorus drop with the overly edited vocals for affect. I want to break the choice to tune her voice like this.

"Forever" is just a melodic mess. If you played this too much I might punch a wall. The entire chorus is OFF!

"Deep in the Woods" is the first song that actually grabbed me. Her voice is less edited. The lyrics are decent. But not so generic it just gets forgotten.

"Supposed to Be" sounds so...dated? It sounds like she has gone back to the disney channel... 

"Chance" is a much better track. It does sadly fall into forgettable territory again though.

"Well..." again falls into forgettable territory. Sadly it seems the album does not have any resounding high notes.

"S.o.S" feels a little overdone. 

"Found My Friends" is a decent track. I feel the lyrics don't totally make sense in the end.

The album closes with "Panorama", which lyrically goes so far away from the track before it that I feel confused upon closing this album. 

MUSIC: 5/10 - Most of it was non-offensive, and happened to be there. Nothing cutting edge. Nothing exciting. You've heard it somewhere before.

LYRICS: 2/10 - This album needs some help to be compelling. I don't mind music being dull and uncaptivating, but when you do not have the lyrical output to make it worth my time I get a bit irritated. 

OVERALL: 2/10 - This album is not really worth your time. It might be okay background music in some mall clothing store that needs some unoffensive pop music that says absolutely nothing.