Starting off with a looped beat, followed by some ambient sounding synthesiser, ‘Doing Laps’ is an interesting track to start the album. It feels almost dreamlike with Art School Girlfriend’s whispery sounding vocals, with a backdrop of ambient synths, almost new age sounding ambience. The outro sounds like something Boards of Canada would come up with, the sound of the sustained synth turning into a cacophony of noise before being completely cut off. A unique track for sure. ‘L.Y.A.T.T’ sounds ominous at the start with a heavy sustained organ sound ringing through the ear, before the vocal of “Love you all the time” grows ever closer. Then we are greeted with a heavy synth riff and a beat that when put together can only make you feel like you’re at a rave. It’s pure house music, and it’s fantastic. That beat could keep you up for days on end, dancing through the night and the day. A great track to keep you hooked into the album. ‘The Field’ brings the energy down slightly, a smooth synth riff and a chilled beat paired with ASG’s dreampop sounding vocals. That ambient feeling comes back in the middle of the track, the synth completely dominating the sound, it feels inspired by The Radio Dept. The outro is beautiful as well, the synths taking you to the dreamworld.

The beat gets back to being up-tempo again on ‘Down The Line’. The track is cut from the shoegaze vein, the beat and synth in the background surrounded by ambient fuzz. The production on this album so far has been great, the sound of each track has been crisp, it really does capture the shoegaze/dreampop vibe perfectly. Even the mellow dreamy guitar on the way out of ‘Down The Line’ just makes you feel like you’re someplace else. ‘Almost Transparent’ carries on with the post-shoegaze sound, the beat vibrates through your headphones, the vocals surrounded by fuzzy sound. Then the beat stops, replaced by ambience and blissful piano, before the rumbling starts and drops us straight back into the energetic beat and the distortion is fizzling through. Another solid track.

‘Save Something’ is very trip hop. The mid-tempo beat along with the slightly distorted piano, with the synth loops in the background, it could be Aphex Twin playing this. The influences of the trip hop and shoegaze artists are there for certain, and that is meant as no insult to the creativity of Art School Girlfriend. The tracks are wonderful to listen to. The ambient atmosphere created by the music being crafted here is great, and it feels almost cybernetic as well, industrial sound. ‘The Peaks’ starts with another sharp beat, with big synth drops backing the track. It feels very atmospheric, the light keyboard notes creeping into the song before disappearing again. It feels like a track out of Blade Runner, which has a great soundtrack, so another great effort from ASG. ‘Hope More, Hopeless’ is interesting, it has the beat of a house track with the piano and vocals of an ambient shoegaze track. It keeps building on the beat throughout the song as ASG’s vocals get stronger too, it’s definitely a head mover.

‘Lines’ has a running synth riff that fades into the ambient backdrop of the track while ASG sings her ghostly vocal. It feels like a transition, the whole track has this light feeling like it could lift off the ground at any moment, but it subverts the expectations and stays on a smooth, relaxed course. The final track on the album, ‘Frame In’ changes ASG’s vocal to this robotic, almost Daft Punk sounding noise. it is such an Aphex Twin sounding track too, very ambient noise with soft vocals layered on the top. It’s the perfect outro to an ambient adventure.

Lean In is a great mix of trip hop, ambient and shoegaze, with even a slight touch of house music in there. Art School Girlfriend produced the record herself, and what a job she has done with it. The blending of all the noise and the music is fresh and unique. If you’re looking for an album to put on and phase into another world, Lean In is a great one to do so.

Art School Girlfriend: Lean In – Out 11 March 2026 (Fiction Records)

School Girlfriend – L.Y.A.T.T. (Official)