Katie Dey channels romantic and nuanced pop through a modem in mydata

In this time of isolation and quarantine, many of us have escaped somewhere, either into our minds or the digital realm. We’ve seen this directly affect music this year, with the sound of pop music becoming more intimate and glitchy. Charli XCX’s how i’m feeling now is the best example of this, combining bedroom pop with violent bursts of computerized noise. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s folklore saw her take a much more analog approach to introspection. Katie Dey finds a happy medium between the two with mydata, an album that sounds like a sentient AI trying to find love.

Katie Dey has always made her music from the depths of the digital world, but mydata is her most human effort to date. It’s also her best. Instead of using the generated noise to obstruct or complicate the music, she uses a backbeat of beeps and squeals alongside keyboard and strings to create a synthesis of real and artificial. (Though, what truly is artificial about the internet these days? Thinking emoji.) While clearer in the mix than ever before, Dey's voice still sounds like it’s being emitted from a modem, but her lyrics are clear and pining. When the distortion kicks in, it accentuates the emotion instead of obfuscating it.

While it may not convert someone put off by the fuzzy filter of digitization, mydata is unique and passionate. Katie Dey has made an album that bridges two worlds in a time where the bridge seems to be clipping out of existence.