INFLUENZER By GFOTY: A return to PC Music’s core
Camp and poison!
For fans of Alexander Guy Cook’s boundary-pushing pop label PC Music, the meteoric and unexpected rise of Charli XCX’s Brat was more than just a right-place right-time moment of mainstream virality, but was rather the culmination of an uncanny, ironically-overproduced sound that had been in development for over a decade. While the PC Music label was officially disbanded in 2023, the sound has continued to develop in the hands of its architects and the figures that marked it like Hannah Diamond and Danny L Harle. Another distinctive and early figure in the label’s history is GFOTY (Girlfriend of the Year), real name Polly Salmon, whose 2017 album GFOTYBUCKS epitomized the polished yet frenetic PC sound that was marked by saccharine vocals and brash, experimental production. In retrospect, much of AG Cook’s current approach to mainstream pop—his abrasive textures, digital aesthetic, and playful self-awareness—feels like a refinement of the sensibilities he first developed through his work with GFOTY.
After AG Cook stopped producing for PC alums and shifted his attention to mainstream pop artists like Charli, some fans worried that GFOTY would struggle to continue her music career without his backing. Her recent release, INFLUENZER, is a major return to form that has quelled those fears by channelling the absurdism of PC Music’s early days while still exuding personality.
One of the album’s most popular tracks, GRWM (eww), sees GFOTY delivering cutting spoken-word judgement over dynamic, lurching production— the track echoes a TikTok storytime or a FaceTime call with a very mean friend. Tracks like Sitcom and Hidden Gem lean more melodic and atmospheric, offering a tolerance break from the album’s chaotic highs without breaking its momentum.
GFOTY’s curt lyricism has long been a signature of her work, serving as a method to immerse us more fully in the superficial circles she satirizes in her music, and INFLUENZER contains a wealth of it. Some of these tracks play like influencers dropping the façade, with nothing being sugar-coated or over-explained. On the brash breakup track YOU CARE, she addresses an ex with ‘I don’t care if you’ll die soon’, while the confessional Hidden Gem laments with ‘Only good when I’m drunk / I need hypnotherapy’. GFOTY’s blunt delivery can fool you into believing you instantly see these tracks for what they are, but INFLUENZER’s complex production and sharp wit is most addictive when it has had time to marinate and reveal itself, especially for the yet uninitiated.
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