Add to playlist: the wild club-pop of Zara Larsson cowriter Helena Gao and the week’s best new tracks
The Chinese-Danish artist wrote nine 10ths of Larsson’s breakout album then got a Grammy nod. It’s a fine springboard for her own revelatory pop
From Aarhus, Denmark
Recommended if you like Caroline Polachek, Zara Larsson, Grimes
Up next Debut project coming later this year
You could hardly make a better professional songwriting debut than co-writing nine 10ths of a moment-defining album – namely Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun – then getting a Grammy nod for it. It’s an enviable springboard for the relaunch of Helena Gao’s solo career. Over the past few years, the Chinese-Danish artist has released a handful of singles and EPs – standout God’s Favourite split the difference between NewJeans and R&B, and comes with an excellent Sims-referencing video – but her new music feels like a real flourishing, sidelining her older sweetness for a freakier braid of heavy bass, stuttering trance and a pitch-bending falsetto to rival that of Caroline Polachek, singing in English and Mandarin.
You can trace her evolution in tracks released just a few years apart. When Gao put out Pretty Please in 2023, the glittering, new-agey rhapsody was laced with innuendo: “I’m a bit of a prude,” she said, conscious of her parents hearing her lyrics. But the first taste of her new era, Lao Shi 老师, translates to “teacher”; its iridescent synths blossoming like flowers as she contemplates “new positions” and “optimising pleasure”. It’s more innocent than it sounds, she’s said, written “during a period of personal awakening” that mirrors her “reconnecting with my Chinese identity”.
Born in Aarhus to a Chinese mother and Danish father, Gao moved to Copenhagen, learned classical jazz and studied – where else – at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory that produces all Denmark’s boundary-breaking pop stars, before moving to split her time between London and Shanghai, and immersing herself in both cities’ club scenes. It all reverberates through a formally wild forthcoming project that should truly make Gao’s name. Laura Snapes
This week’s best new tracks
Saul Williams – Conspiracy (ft Moor Mother and Gonjasufi)
“You may choose a desire to belong ...” A riveting return for the great performance poet, dispensing fortifying wisdom as if to a group of freshly minted revolutionaries, over an amapiano beat. BBT
Lily Seabird – Election Day
As ultimatums go, “Love me or leave me the fuck alone” is a pretty good one – especially when screamed among squalling alt-country guitar by a songwriter primed for a 2026 breakout. LS
Yushh – Petty Vengeance
With bass made for coursing through the bodywork of an aggressively souped-up hatchback, the West Country dance producer puts together an almighty secret weapon for festival season. BBT
case/lang/veirs – Accidental Tattoo
Marking a decade since Neko Case, kd lang and Laura Veirs united for a one-off album, this devotional, groovy bonus track from those sessions is beyond heavenly. C’mon ladies, give us a Vol 2. LS
Fimiguerrero – Skywalker (ft Fakemink)
Taken from Fimiguerrero’s pained, emo-leaning new EP The Statue of a Fool, he links with another star of the UK rap underground to mope about a clingy girlfriend over a dissonantly sweet-natured Wraith9 beat. BBT
Jordan Patterson – Cinderella
The LA songwriter’s music is getting weirder in the best way possible: her vocal vibrato builds texture like impasto, summoning gruff and tinkling piano and burbling synths to her shimmering acoustic reverie. LS
Tierra Whack – Candle Wax
Sat amid gorgeous boom-bap soul-sampling hip-hop on new mixtape Whack’s Museum, Whack uses a tight, repeated vocal melody to evoke a downbeat yet tenacious mood: brilliant craft. BBT
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