I Hear You

I Hear You is the debut album by South Korean DJ and singer Peggy Gou, released on 7 June 2024 through XL Recordings. It includes the singles "I Go", "(It Goes Like) Nanana", "I Believe in Love Again" with Lenny Kravitz, and "1+1=11". The album also includes a collaboration with Villano Antillano.

Background and themes

Gou called I Hear You "more than just [her] debut album" as she felt it "embodies countless hours of dedication in [her] journey to create something timeless". The album was influenced by 1990s house music.

Gou released "1+1=11" as a single alongside the album's announcement in April 2024, which is intended to represent the album's running theme of "togetherness". Gou collaborated with Icelandic–Danish artist Olafur Eliasson on the video for "1+1=11", and he also designed the angled mirrors she wears around her ears on the cover art, and contributed his poem "Your Planet Seen from Within" to the first track, "Your Art".

Singles

The album includes Gou's 2021 single "I Go", as well as her most successful track, 2023's "(It Goes Like) Nanana". In addition to also including her collaboration with Lenny Kravitz, "I Believe in Love Again", Gou issued the intended lead single, "1+1=11", in April 2024.

Critical reception

I Hear You received a score of 73 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 12 critics' reviews, which the website categorised as "generally favorable" reception. Stereogum named it album of the week, with the website's Tom Breihan writing that its "short and sharp and punchy" tracks "don't move like the patient, thoughtful ones on her EPs. She's going for blood on this one. I Hear You works within the lineage of '90s dance that inspired the record, but it also sounds like a pop album". NME's Skye Butchard felt that "two mid-tempo tracks early on stalls the record’s momentum" but that "the album picks up in its explorative second half" and "when it works, it's like finding dance music for the first time. I Hear You has a pureness that will give many that feeling."

The Line of Best Fit's Callum Foulds concluded that Gou "pays homage to [her] talents, laying a path that is singularly hers to embark on, one on which she carries the future of dance-music, and all of it's fun". Chris Bryson of Exclaim! stated that "Gou is known for exciting eclecticism in her DJ sets, and this quality shines with growing versatility on I Hear You", describing the album as "a masterful first full dose of Gou's kaleidoscopic 'K-house'" and "striking a vibrant and dynamic balance between familiarity and freshness". Paul Simpson of AllMusic found it to be "much closer to the type of risk-taking album fans would expect her to make based on her eclectic DJ sets, seemingly encapsulating her musical evolution and influences in ten songs". Pitchfork's Chal Ravens felt that Gou "cherry-pick[s] iconic sounds from house music's '80s and '90s heyday" but concluded that "there's no point in throwing around grand concepts like so much glitter in order to feel like a serious album artist—just turn up the 'nananas' and keep the piña coladas coming".

Track listing

Notes

• The lyrics to "Your Art" are an adaptation of the poem "Your Planet Seen from Within", written by Olafur Eliasson.
• "All That" contains a sample of "Turn Me On", written by Kevin Lyttle, Marvin E. Scandrick, Courtney Sills, Quinnes Daymond Parker, Michael Keith, Arnold Walker Hennings, and Daron Tavaris Jones, and performed by Lyttle.

Personnel

• Peggy Gou – lead vocals, production, mixing
• Matt Colton – mastering
• Olafur Eliasson – creative direction
• Jongha Park – photography
• Viktor Hammarberg – design

Charts

References