(Interscope)An underground phenomenon since his teenage years, Hollis Frazier-Herndon feels like a male Charli xcx about to take off2hollis looks like an avatar dreamed up in a K-pop factory: elven, almost CGI-generated. His fourth album, his first for a major, sounds like the internet: a pummelling mashup of hyperpop, post-Playboi Carti trap and tweaky club music also indebted to underground Swedes Drain Gang. Which is to say, the 21-year-old LA-raised singer-producer feels something like a male Charli xcx circa 2023 – a leftfield figure about to blow up on their own terms.That’s the overriding theme of Star, with songs such as Flash, Cope and Tell Me dedicating swathes of the record to manifesting success and worrying about over-exposure; a curveball acoustic ballad (Eldest Child) boasts how someone’s parents “don’t know anything about me”. Continue reading...