empathogen

WILLOW spent her early career bouncing between styles, from a viral childhood hit to a run of pop-punk, before landing somewhere genuinely her own on empathogen. The album leans on jazz harmony, tricky shifting rhythms, and live musicianship, with her voice darting through arrangements that change shape under her. She made it with a small group of players rather than building it from samples, and you can hear the difference: it breathes and turns in ways programmed pop does not. It is short, dense, and clearly the work of someone following her ear.