With 2023's PORTALS, Melanie Martinez further fleshes out her high-concept pop, crafting an album that plays enticingly like Alice in a goth Wonderland. Arriving on the heels of a two-year hiatus, the record is the singer's first not to feature her empath "Cry Baby" persona, the focus of both 2015's Cry Baby and 2019's K-12. Thematically, PORTALS is an album about death and rebirth with songs that speak to Martinez's ongoing knack for reinventing her sci-fantasy baby girl aesthetic in ever more musically nuanced and diaristic ways. Produced with collaborator C.J. Baran, PORTALS sounds similar to her past work, a textural blend of electronic grooves and instrumentation that she smartly blends with more organic strings, woody bass, and sundry other analog instruments. Vocally, Martinez also still has her distinctively cherubic style, like an anime alien who listened to a lot of Feist and Rihanna. There's also a growing maturity to her work and never a sense that she's not in complete control of what she's creating. This is perhaps best expressed on the opening "DEATH," a moody, orchestral-tinged anthem that feels like it's about reclaiming one's emotions after a difficult breakup. PORTALS also features moments of thrilling alt-rock anthemics, including the Garbage-esque "BATTLE OF THE LARYNX" with its chugging guitar riff and tidal wave synths. There's also "VOID," which sounds something like Billie Eilish crossed with the Cure. Equally compelling is "MOON CYCLE," in which Martinez takes a strong, witchy feminist stance, singing, "I could win a fight on my period/Matter of fact, right now, I could build a pyramid/You messing with my cycle, that is dangerous." ~ Matt Collar