Album review: "Cutie Pie :3" by Gyanma
Gyanma has been having himself quite a 2024. He kicked off the year with his own slot on RaiNao's hit debut LP, CAPICÚ, which also gave him the chance to delight the crowd during her smash live concert in June. Last month, he made a surprise appearance on Jotaerre's album TODO ESTÁ BIEN, teaming up with the Rimas-backed artist on the track "NiRVaNa." And Dúo Deleite, his duet alongside partner-in-crime Enyel C, have been revving engines for a surprise drop later this year, tiding fans over in the meantime with the two-track release of i❤️duo.
Now, after some delay, the (busy!) ALAS Studios founder is finally unveiling his new album, and the long wait was worth it and then some.
Cutie Pie :3 is both the name of the project and a term of endearment towards its focus character: Trini, ostensibly an anime kawaii girl (brought to life in its visuals by model Krystal Hewu.) The album has Gyanma swerving towards a more hyperpop-infused sound, while still exhibiting all the trademarks of his flirty lyrics and rhapsodic persona. Straddling the gap between being an outright concept album or simply being highly enthusiastic about its aesthetics, Cutie Pie reaches back to a time when adolescence seemed to be defined by Toonami, Tamagotchis, and Tokyo Drift.
Every generation navigates the malaise and tumult of its days in their own ways, and Gyanma (an early-90s child) came up during a watershed moment for Asian youth culture being accepted by their western contemporaries. Now, as he and his fellow Late Millennial tribe start to enter their 30s, they're discovering the trappings of nostalgia that 80s kids were already intimately — and sometimes embarrassingly — familiar with (guilty as charged.) Embracing that era and marrying it with the sensibilities of his own Puerto Rican culture, the "bajo candau" singer puts forth a collection of tracks that can hit home for both his peers and audiences beyond.
The trip down memory lane begins in earnest with the title of opening track "POCHACCO <3," a direct reference to the popular Sanrio character, which was a cultural bulldozer in the late-90s/early-00s. Gyanma has said that the emotional throughline of Cutie Pie is "puppy love" and he cements it here from the jump, using the cutesy stickers fad that was all the rave in his middle and high school years as a signifier of the kind of doe-eyed love he has for Trini ("Shorty me tiene pegá en su libreta como Pochacco"). Sonically and thematically, it does an excellent job of setting the necessary vibes for the album's experience while also being a bop in its own right.
Both "Shibari 緊縛" and "dream (team)" traffic in yearning; an unavoidable part of the puppy love experience (IYKYK.) Early last year, Gyanma showed a huge stride in his already-deft songwriting with Lado A / Lado B, and the same shines through here. Over electric guitar riffs, poppy synths, and glitchy hi-hats, he threads earnest emotions wrapped in bori slang and 'tude. It's urbano bubblegum pop, with swag that wears its heart on its sleeve.
There's room for cheekiness on the album, too. As a performer, Gyanma is one of the more fun artists to follow and his enthusiasm extends to his candid wordplay and willingness to indulge in horndoggery. How can you reminisce about your adolescence without acknowledging being hormone crazy? "Titties de Anime," with its self-explanatory title, ingeniously covers the themes of Cutie Pie while also being a bonk-worthy horny anthem to a bishōjo's assets. The song is also chock-full of geeky references cribbed from anime and comic book media. Personal favorites are be "Pareces sacá de un ad / Baby, tú eres la Hokage" and "Baby, tú partirías en Comic Con / Tú llegas y pierdo la concentración." Along with "antes que la rola..." and "Integra 94," he covers most of the culture touchstones he set out to homage, and all in an organic way that gives the album a specific personality beyond surface aesthetics.
If you want to dabble in hyperpop, especially in Puerto Rico, you have to bring in the best of the best. It's why Gyanma recruited deadperrx and djeii for the album's interlude and outro, rightly recognizing how invaluable their contributions would end up being. The two are siblings and have been collaborating for years, with already-classics like "GAS" and album Xelestia still on rotation. Here, they bring in melancholic anison energy that underlines the influence of those soundtracks and also help glue together the many disparate emotions the album's songs touch on. (See our exclusive Q&A with GRIIEGO for more about the hyperpop scene on the island.)
It's difficult to color within the lines when you want to imbue your project with aesthetics of a culture that's not your own. A lesser artist might not have been able to balance the intent of Cutie Pie :3 without overlapping into Orientalism or blatant cultural appropriation (or just plain corniness.) But Gyanma's thesis doesn't rest on that; it's about fondly channeling that crossover that he — and so many others — grew up with, and the memories of the swirl of emotions he went through during those years.
Gyanma's smart enough to know that when it comes to the heart, daydreaming idly about a date where you binge Naruto with a cutie, or fogging up car windows in the backseat of a souped-up Acura, are both valid emotions when the intent is honest. Trini stands in for the carousel of crushes you experience, and by managing to always center the core sentiments of the album he makes it into a success, and his best album yet.
Follow Gyanma on Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, and YouTube, and listen to Cutie Pie :3 here: