Four years after Terra Lopez’s debut album Devoted and five years after her father’s untimely death, Lopez’s project Ritual of Mine returns with a futuristic combo of R&B, electronic and pop on Hype Nostalgia. The title of the album says it best, on this album Lopez deals with various levels of trauma from her past and present, from the death of her father and best friend within six months of each other to being a woman of color in the music industry to intergenerational trauma all through the hyped up sonic lens of club worthy beats. Most of the album plays in the realm of swaggering electronic pop that peers such as Jessy Lanza dominate, with some gentler R&B songs mixed throughout, such as “Reflex.” The album closes on the piano and vocal focused track “The Last Wave” which most transparently shows the healing journey Lopez has been on. Lopez not only accomplishes the difficult task of making pain danceable and uplifting on Hype Nostalgia but she dominates at it.

By Emma Chekroun