Just a few weeks ago, Hannah Diamond found herself in a bit of a Twitter storm. The singer had just announced “Poster Girl”, the fourth single from her luminous new album Perfect Picture, and posted the single’s artwork on her Instagram. Some eagle-eyed internet sleuths were keen to point out that the cover art shared some similarities with Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson’s 2021 LP, also called Poster Girl. Although not exactly alike, both high-gloss, hyper-femme images show the singers in their respective “bedrooms”, reclining on pink satin sheets, posters of themselves adorning the walls. “She won the idgaf war,” was Larsson’s admittedly quite funny response, when one of her fans tagged her in a side-by-side.

After this, Diamond headed to Instagram, editing the caption of her original post to address Larsson directly. “I totally acknowledge the overlaps between our work so I’d like to take a minute to give some background to my choices for making and putting this image out in the world,” she began. “My new album is about exploring girlhood and its varying expressions in pop culture… about unpacking all the elements of my music and photography career since 2013 that have led me to where I am now. It is a celebration of the work I have made that has influenced so much of the visual aesthetics of the world of underground and mainstream pop today.” Larsson responded in the comments, admitting she felt “really really sad” when she saw Diamond’s artwork, but now “I’ve done my research I can see that even though I didn’t have you on my mood board, the photographers that I’ve looked up to… surely, definitely, did!”

Diamond’s response hit the nail on the head. Although Twitter stans in Pop Crave replies tried to make the exchange about something entirely different – namely, beef between two female pop stars – Diamond de-escalated the situation, calmly and eloquently reminding us that her vision was the blueprint. The entire aesthetic that Larsson had adopted for her second album could be traced back to Diamond and her PC Music compatriots, solidifying the fact that the label has been steadily and heavily influencing pop since its 2013 launch. Now, a decade later, Diamond’s Perfect Picture is that HD-ready vision come to life.

On the record, the singer grapples with the tug-of-war between fantasy and reality, a fantasy that she sometimes feels complicit in creating. “I try to increase transparency/So I can see through the fantasy/I think I need to hit delete/But it's all imaginary,” she sings on the syrupy title track. The same sentiment is echoed on “Poster Girl”, when Diamond admits that “When I focus on what’s perfect/I never notice that it’s the imperfections/In moments that make life so worth it.” Fifth track “Impossible” sees Diamond photoshop her own perfect partner (“All the layers are clean/Not one imperfection”), but ultimately knows that the perfection is futile (“You look real to me/Why do you have to be impossible?”). Reality begins to seep in on the glimmering “No FX”, where Diamond knows “in my heart/You see me with no FX”, but it’s the final track, the stirring pop ballad “Unbreakable” where Diamond learns she “don’t need no one at all”. “Brand new starts aren’t always a bad thing,” she sings, hopefully. “Sometimеs good things come from an ending.”

In other news, Drake is back with his eighth studio album For All The Dogs, Dorian Electra delivers an electrifying new record, and Sufjan Stevens returns with the heartfelt Javelin.

COUCOU CHLOE, FEVER DREAM

DORIAN ELECTRA, FANFARE

DRAKE, FOR ALL THE DOGS

HANNAH DIAMOND, PICTURE PERFECT

OMAR APOLLO, LIVE FOR ME

SLAUSON MALONE 1, EXCELSIOR

SUFJAN STEVENS, JAVELIN

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