If your vision of pop is as a music box of shiny, vibrant and boisterous sounds, Gia Love opens your eyes to a wonderful new way of working in that genre. She takes the accessibility and simple elegance of modern pop but instead of charging off with them in party mood, cleverly she slows things down, spaces them out, makes them more soul searching and intimate. The result is the most seductive of grooves, ones that snake through some commercial soundscapes but only ever plays the pop game by its own new rules.
And between this musical back bone and the sultry vocal delivery that sits up front there is plenty of space but instead of filling it with the usual pop fare, Gia takes the braver option of leaving it bare and apart from a few interesting, passing musical motifs and distant electronica, it is essentially the atmospherics and emptiness in the centre that helps create the mystique of the song. It is pop, yes, but it also ticks some more unexpected boxes. Darkchild panders to gothic nostalgia, ambient sensibilities and even flirts with the dark underbelly of R&B. Doom-pop? That might be over selling it slightly but it does provide a wonderful alternative to the usual neon lit youthful exuberance that normally goes hand in hand with the pop label.
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