In some ways, there’s something escapist about Lauran Hibberd’s second album. With her fuzzy, nostalgic ‘slacker pop’ sound, she opens a portal to the 2000s and lives life as the main character of the sort of movie you watch at sleepovers growing up but then revisit endlessly as an adult. She’s certainly not lacking an identity, even if she’s indulging a feeling and a sound that’s quickly becoming the calling card of many new Gen Z upstarts. Nonetheless, even if the follow-up to 2022’s Garageband Superstar isn’t wildly innovative, there’s a smorgasbord of catchy tunes fizzing with sugary energy. The aching pop-rock angst of Jealous smacks of Avril Lavigne’s Complicated in a rather uncanny yet purposeful way, while Mary’s sticky melodies are complement...
