Recently, pop artist Neoma – the artistic vehicle of Ecuadorian singer-songwriter-producer Carla Huiracocha –released her new album ‘Hyperreal’ the follow-up (and sequel) to Neoma’s 2019 LP, ‘Real’.

Now based in Denver, CO, Neoma, originally from Cuenca, Ecuador, Neoma has honed her unique blend of bilingual vocals, sharp pop songwriting, and more experimental electronic flourishes on this new album, which was influenced by the likes of Kate Bush, SOPHIE, ARCA, Donna Summer and SARAMALACARA.

Speaking on the upcoming album, Huiracocha writes: “Hyperreal is the sequel to Real. It is more intense, very hyperpop influenced. The title is inspired by Lorde’s Buzzcut season hyperreal lyric: ‘Make-believe it's hyperreal.’ Virtual relationships feel very hyper realistic to me. Hyperreal is the dual digital-physical reality of maintaining relationships over the phone. Some things can be real, but not enough.”

The album’s two singles Tears at Bae and Say You Love Me show off the range of the stylistic influences and emotional palette of ‘Hyperreal’   as the shimmering disco-pop “bad bitch” anthem Tears At Bae, which has similarities with the recent work of pop artists like Dua Lipa, is contrasted with the moodiness and intimacy of Say You Love Me, reflecting a darker and more introspective pop style of someone like Billie Eilish. Both songs are accompanied by music videos, with the Tears at Bae video taking Neoma to the appropriate setting of a roller rink as she performs the disco inspired song with a number of skating backup dancers, and the Say you Love Me video providing an appropriately dramatic visual for the track, featuring Neoma playing the piano and eventually falling into a pool, mirroring the song’s refrain “At the end of the day, I’m still falling for you”.

In the lyrics of ‘Hyperreal’ Huiracocha traffics in classic pop music tropes like relationship struggles and heartbreak, while also attempting to flip those traditional dynamics on their head through new lenses and perspectives, spending much of the album questioning her sexuality and being non-monogamous, reflected in lyrics like “hard to find somebody for this modern love” and “I won’t tie up myself/but I won’t leave you alone” on “Say You Love Me”. 

‘Hyperreal’ leans on the seductive pull of nostalgia as both a sonic motif and a thematic concern, but the album hardly sounds stuck in the past, as the whole record bridges the gap between retro-leaning 80s synth pop and disco motifs inspired by ABBA and Donna Summer while blending in the more extreme sonic experiments and industrial sounds of hyperpop, marrying the new and old to exciting results. Both Huiracocha (who produced a majority of the tracks on ‘Hyperreal’ herself) and her producing partner Danny Pauta grew up moving back and forth from Ecuador and New Jersey - where they were both born, giving them a unique lens on both language and music, with Huiracocha learning both English and Spanish as early as four. Inspired by similar  artists like Arca, Sophie and FKA Twigs, who have taken the foundational motifs of pop music and elevated them to new forms while also making intensely personal music, Neoma aims to join those ranks as an artist pushing the sound of pop music to the future.