This summer there’s been a lot of talk about how playlists and Spotify’s algorithm are harming new music. A growing share of contemporary hits no longer originate from years and decades past, but directly from the 20th century. Between ‘Creep’, ‘Wonderwall’, Michael Jackson’s hits, and that Goo Goo Dolls track from the polka year, it’s been a breath of fresh air to find across Spotify’s Global Top different songs by KATSEYE, the group formed from the reality show ‘Dream Academy’.
When the group was still a sextet, they surprised with the edgy and hyperpop production of ‘Gnarly’, with an extreme sound that, in the mainstream, Charli XCX and Rosalía barely dared to touch. In the second EP ‘BEAUTIFUL CHAOS’ of 2025 they included their hit ‘Gabriela’ and the melodic ‘Gameboy’, and now they release a third EP, amid somewhat turbulent news.
‘WILD’ hits the market after Manon has left the lineup, and after Sophia Laforteza has stepped back for a time due to mental health issues. Some speak of the need to pause, and others believe that groups of this kind have so many members that when a couple drop out, they can carry on (see the EP cover). In any case, the productions don’t miss the mark for now.
Leading is ‘PINKY UP’, the track they’ve taken to award ceremonies, and which is their typical unpredictable and changing song, which they have dubbed “punk”, with remnants of hyperpop and a 100% delirious lyric in its philosophical approach: “I know nothing, like Socrates; the only true wisdom is to know that you know nothing.” Also disregarding the laws of restraint and subtlety, their latest single is a mind-bender titled ‘Hootie Frutti’ inspired by Britney’s ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’, which only Pitchfork could try to find a deep meaning in.
That ‘ANIMAL’, co-written with Ed Sheeran, has begun to climb the charts—we sense it in the pretty acoustic drop of the chorus—but the true crown jewel is ‘Bel Air’. We are witnessing the development of a demo that Charli XCX discarded for ‘SUCKER’ and that has been circulating the web for ten years. Here it sounds ethereal, floating, and evocative, something that could go viral today or in the TikTok that exists in 2046. Daniela, Lara, Megan and Yoonchae are already defending the melodic potential of the chorus in all its splendor on social media, and another hit—another in the long line—could be on the horizon.
Only ‘That Way’ falters, as it seems to carry those Pharrell-style rhythms that earned him a lawsuit from Marvin Gaye’s heirs; and worse, it drags on without reaching three minutes. Otherwise, as far as hits go, KATSEYE, for the moment, continue delivering.
