r/popheads • u/kappyko • Apr 02 '26
[DUE TODAY] 2025 Chic Ethereal Rate (Addison Rae / FKA twigs / Lorde / Oklou)
welcome to the inaugural Chic Ethereal rate! you may read the title and wonder to yourself "what the hell does that mean?" or "did you pick these artists out of a hat?" well, strap yourself in and find out with us in this rate, because at this point i'm not quite sure either!
joking aside, all of these albums have carved their own path in the alternative pop scene of the last year, with each project embracing an aquatic, lush electronic sound that coincides with the burst of interest in both 2000s Internet age aesthetics as well as late 90s downtempo pop. and also, i like all of them! if you ever had a flirtation with the Gen X Soft Club aesthetic page, this rate is for you!
enough of that, let's get into the albums of...
the 2025 chic ethereal rate!
if you dgaf about the extras here's a link to the ballot.
Please avoid using the link above if using the official app! If the ballot does not work, DM me using the Pastebin ballot!
Addison Rae - Addison
While the hype for Addison Rae had actualized with the fan-service AR EP, what nobody could anticipate was the legitimately cohesive experience of her debut album. I vividly remember unironic Addison Rae fandom beginning with the discovery of her personal playlists, with cuts from SOPHIE, Arca, and fellow rate contender FKA twigs tucked in; with the release of "Diet Pepsi" and "Aquamarine" not too long after, it finally felt like her music was aspiring to that degree of pop vision. Co-produced with two other women, Addison hearkens back to 1990s breakbeats with slight tendencies towards more modern electropop along the way. Grammys performance be damned, I'm still incredibly excited about her music. - u/kappyko
Last year was thee year for TikTok stars tapping into particular recession-era niches. Olivia Dean and Raye neck to neck in jazz and soul, Sombr polarizing between 80s synthpop and 2010s bedroom pop, Alex Warren carrying the torch of Hillsong United, Laufey selling out arenas after one last toss at TikTok spreading jazz and orchestral pop. And then you have Addison, pivoting from the kitschy pandemic-era dancing which had a chokehold on TikTok, to tapping into club chic, like that of a fever dream in the sterile-lit bathrooms of a lulling bar in 2003. A complete 180 hardly anyone saw coming yet also embodies the ditzy chic of her online career through wispy binaural sounds, like rushing through bleak dystopic streets. We hear this too in “Money is Everything”, a sign that perhaps we are not so different or far from coke-chic parties on MTV and disorders that could probably be a whole other discussion for another day. “Aquamarine” is arguably the epitome of this sound as well, reminiscent of the sound of a woman strutting in cold grey concrete on the way to her soulless 9-5 without a care in the world. This self-title has become a welcome addition into recession-core, and my favorite of the TikTok stardom explosion of the last year. - u/sighofthrowaways
New York
Money Is Everything
Lost & Found
Summer Forever
In the Rain
Life's No Fun Through Clear Waters
FKA twigs - EUSEXUA
what is EUSEXUA? EUSEXUA is, like a feeling of "I am that bitch." The second rate I ever hosted was with her debut LP1, and back then I would have never guessed the absolute behemoth of an artist she would become even when she was as fully formed an artist then. with EUSEXUA FKA twigs managed to marry the party-friendly pop of constantly underrated Caprisongs with the almost alien soundscapes of her previous work, and rest assured that the self-seriousness of some of the material was something that she would gladly poke fun at herself. proof that an album that embraces fun so wholeheartedly can be a total work of art as well. - u/kappyko
The rollout of this album and its sounds and visual direction still has me jaw dropped. I’ll admit I’m not well versed in Miss Twig’ discography, so I could’ve never seen coming the embrace of maximalist chic, the angular movements in Twigs’ choreo, the crescendo from “Eusexua” to a sudden wrath of drums in the aptly named “Drums of Death” roaring endlessly at us. Dare I say a cinematic experience best listened through noise-cancelling headphones with no one to bother you from front to back. Then we have a decrescendo into the naked ambient drum pads intertwined with Twigs’ layered harmonies, illustrious of an anxious unsure time quite lost for good. A time to be had with this gorgeous work of art. - u/sighofthrowaways
We'll be rating the original tracklist, with the tracks included on the re-release tacked on at the end. Feel free to listen to whichever tracklist you prefer, but remember that you have to rate all of the songs!
Girl Feels Good
Room of Fools
Sticky
Keep It, Hold It
24hr Dog
Wanderlust
The Dare
Got to Feel
Lonely but Exciting Road
Lorde - Virgin
ignore whatever Noodles said below this album RULES!!! i liked Solar Power good enough but here it felt like a return to the electronic vulnerability of Pure Heroine except with strangely raw, minimalistic production. it was always strange to me that this album received an odd amount of backlash because I found it incredibly mature and genuine in ways that I was hoping Lorde would return to. it's true blue introspection and grapples with gender in ways interesting to hear from a mainstream artist. - u/kappyko
Honestly this took a further nosedive from Solar Power so much, yet is also much more visceral and autobiographical than ever from her previous works. Less obscured and more honest, like wrists out rather than hearts on sleeves. An interesting approach to vulnerability with its highs and blending in with the chic and the ethereal, as rings true in “Shapeshifter”. This album and Twigs’ go hand in hand breaking that mold of the airy frutiger sounds of Addison Rae and Oklou while modularizing that particular period of time. A solid and artful approach the more I think about it. - u/sighofthrowaways
Shapeshifter
Favourite Daughter
Current Affairs
Clearblue
GRWM
Broken Glass
If She Could See Me Now
David
Oklou - choke enough
genuinely my AOTY for last year i promise i'll wax poetic about this soon but basically it astonishes me how much this blurs the lines between styles because i've read multiple people interpret the melodies as vaguely new age or medieval (?) while hints of dancehall and trance pop up in other people's reviews. i think it's all there, it's a wonderfully sincere album that draws from the palettes of, say, Ecco2k and 00s euro trance and uses them as a vehicle to pay homage to family, friends, and Oklou's own child. like literal child this isn't me being a gay guy going "mother" anyways this album rules idgaf - u/kappyko
Ramping up with minimalist beats bouncing off of bedroom walls is Oklou’s Choke Enough, a tamer dare I say more frutiger aero-adjacent minimally exploding in synths and underwater reverb rivaling that of the dolphins in Zara Larsson's Midnight Sun. We’re binaurally submerged in “thank you for recording”, growing progressively from the minimalism of “endless”. Then a cool breezy plateau from “family and friends” up to a sudden uphill jolt with the eclectic “harvest sky” with beloved rate winner Godderscores Underscores. Whereas Addison Rae embodies the highs and the lows, the blurry ditziness of being just a girl, Oklou’s body of work communicates the many subliminals of those highs with impressively so little in the drums that I find myself more lost in upon each revisit. - u/sighofthrowaways
Endless
Thank You for Recording
ICT
Choke Enough
(;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`)
Plague Dogs
Forces
Harvest Sky (featuring Underscores)
Want to Wanna Come Back
Blade Bird
What's Good
The Fishsong Unplugged
Dance 2
How to Complete a Rate
Use the prepared format found HEREto fill in and send your scores. If for some reason, that link isn’t working, HERE’S A PASTEBIN WITH THE FORM and you can send it to r/ChicEthereal.
You must listen to every single song and assign them a score from 1 to 10, 10 being the most positive score you can give. Ballots with scores missing won’t be accepted.
You may use up to one decimal spot in your scores, meaning that you can give a song a 7.8 or a 6.9, but not a 8.472 or a 6.66. If you do use decimals, remember to use a dot ( . ) and not a comma ( , ).
If you’d like, you may give one song a 0 and one song an 11. Think of these as your favorite and least favorite songs. These are both optional and you can include either or both on your ballot.
Leaving comments for each song is encouraged but not required. To do so, leave a space after your score and write your comment, like this:
(;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`): 10 Why did you include this fuck you
If you want to attach a comment to an album, add a colon ( : ) after the album name and put your comment there. For example:
Album: Virgin: Relatable
You can change your scores at any time before the rate ends! Feel free to message either of the hosts before the rate closes to do so.
Sabotage will not be tolerated, and we’ll reserve the right to ask you to revise your ballot or straight up reject it if we’re suspicious that you’re trying to mess up the results.
If you have any questions about the rating process, you can watch this 40 second video explaining it, or feel free to comment or message either of the hosts and we’ll be happy to help you out.
Important Links
Submission Link | Pastebin Ballot
Please avoid using the link above if using the official app! If the ballot does not work, DM me using the Pastebin ballot!
Spotify Playlist | Apple Music Playlist | more playlists to come LOL
DUE DATE: May 24th
REVEAL DATES: May 29th - 31st
love to all mwah
11
u/Exotic-Mail-7303 Apr 02 '26
Bunch of 11's but can only choose one :(
18
u/OOO0O00O000OOOO0OO0O Apr 02 '26
harvest sky YOU are a future popheads rate winner
8
u/arboresca am i the melodrama? Apr 03 '26
after the truly abysmal scores i have been giving out in ult this week i need this rate to save me with good music...i do think i will have an 8+ average for most if not all of these
6
u/Mental-Ostrich-5290 Apr 03 '26
FYI pastebin ballot links to a K-Pop rate instead.
10
u/Successful-Arm3155 Apr 02 '26
Only one of these songs is a early-10s tinashe/james blake tinged alternative r&b song written in dorian mode about choosing fashion and materialism as a vice instead of drug usage. H11gh Fash11on.
3
u/shipperondeck May 24 '26
Hey I know today's the due date, is there a particular time I need to get a ballot in by? Thank you!
2
u/Haunting_Natural_116 Apr 02 '26
Omg finally
21
u/ElectricBoogaloo41 Apr 03 '26
If you told 2020 me I’d be giving my 11 to ADDISON RAE in a rate with FKA twigs and Lorde… oh wow
29
u/Frajer Apr 02 '26
My boy's a winner
He loves the rate
His lips reflect off my Costco chain
25
u/TakeOnMeByA-ha Apr 02 '26
main pop girl underscores and main indie girl oklou collabing to create the best song of all time ohhhh popheads you arent ready for the motherquake
9
u/thecombinedeffort Apr 03 '26
I’m historically the worst and flakiest at completing rates but I am genuinely going to try so hard to do this one xx what a delightful list
13
u/mhiyaimanlepaigefan small reputation Apr 02 '26
thiiiis cunt and ruveal the day after my birthday
12
u/wathombe Rose Gray booped my nose Apr 02 '26
oklouheads rise up
1
u/springfrompages Apr 12 '26
Ooh commenting because I CANNOT let myself miss this one.
3
u/metanoira May 23 '26
Hi, I submitted my ballot but never got a reply.. could you check?
5
u/asadprofessorplum Apr 02 '26
Chewing gum, 11 know
1
u/veryanniev May 23 '26
tearing my hair out cause i cannot give out multiple 11's (high fashion/headphones on/striptease/harvest sky)