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**★★★★☆**

In the hyperreal universe of PC Music, where artifice isn't just embraced but weaponised into pop perfection, Hannah Diamond has always occupied a unique position. Part visual artist, part pop starlet, part digital age philosopher, Diamond spent years crafting her aesthetic through photography and singles before finally delivering her debut album, *Reflections*, in 2019. The wait was worth it – this is hyperpop's most emotionally resonant statement, a record that uses the genre's trademark synthetic sheen to explore surprisingly human themes.

Diamond's journey to *Reflections* reads like a modern fairy tale filtered through Instagram. Originally a photographer whose glossy, artificially perfect images became synonymous with the PC Music collective's visual identity, she gradually emerged as a recording artist in her own right. Her early singles like "Pink and Blue" and "Attachment" established her as more than just A.G. Cook's muse or SOPHIE's collaborator – here was an artist with her own distinct vision of what pop music could be in the digital age.

The album opens with "Invisible," a mission statement wrapped in crystalline production that immediately establishes Diamond's fascination with themes of identity and self-perception. Her voice, pitched and processed but never losing its essential humanity, floats over cascading synths that sound like they're falling through cyberspace. It's a perfect introduction to an album obsessed with surfaces and what lies beneath them.

Musically, *Reflections* sits comfortably within the PC Music ecosystem while carving out its own emotional territory. This is hyperpop with heart, retaining all the genre's love of extreme processing and synthetic textures while grounding them in genuine feeling. Diamond and her collaborators – primarily A.G. Cook and Danny L Harle – have created a sonic palette that's simultaneously futuristic and nostalgic, drawing from early 2000s pop, trance, and R&B while pushing these influences through a distinctly contemporary filter.

The album's standout moments showcase Diamond's ability to find profundity in the artificial. "Love Goes On" is perhaps the record's emotional peak, a devastating ballad about loss that uses its synthetic production to create a sense of beautiful isolation. Diamond's vocals, layered and harmonised into a choir of digital angels, transform grief into something transcendent. It's the kind of song that could only exist in this hyper-processed environment, yet it feels more authentic than most "real" music.

"True" continues this exploration of authenticity in the digital age, with Diamond questioning the nature of identity over a backdrop of shimmering arpeggios and pitched vocal samples. The track's central question – "What is true?" – becomes a meditation on how we construct ourselves in an age of endless self-documentation and digital manipulation.

The album's most immediate pleasures come from its pure pop moments. "Fade Away" is a rush of euphoric energy that sounds like falling in love in a video game, while "Never Again" channels early Madonna through a prism of contemporary production techniques. These tracks prove that beneath all the conceptual framework, Diamond understands the fundamental power of a great pop song.

*Reflections* isn't without its challenges. At 13 tracks, it occasionally feels overstuffed, and some of the more experimental moments can feel indulgent rather than essential. The album's commitment to its aesthetic sometimes comes at the expense of dynamic range – everything exists in the same glossy, hyperreal space, which can be exhausting over a full album experience.

Yet these minor quibbles fade when considering the album's broader achievement. *Reflections* represents a maturation of the PC Music project, proving that the collective's innovations could support full-length artistic statements rather than just clever singles. Diamond has created a complete world here, one where artificial and authentic aren't opposites but different facets of the same jewel.

Four years on, *Reflections* stands as hyperpop's most successful attempt at emotional depth. While contemporaries like 100 gecs pushed the genre's chaotic potential and Charli XCX brought it to the mainstream, Diamond proved it could be genuinely moving. The album's influence can be heard in everyone from Grimes to Rina Sawayama, artists who've learned to use digital processing as an emotional amplifier rather than a distancing device.

*Reflections* remains Hannah Diamond's defining statement – a beautiful, strange artifact from pop's digital future that somehow feels more human than most music made with "real" instruments.