Hayley Kiyoko is a singer, dancer and actress who has been an advocate for the LGBT community all around the world. She is a queer pop icon, her fans calling her “Lesbian Jesus.” She is a lesbian who writes about girls because that is who she is attracted to. Many openly LGBT people who are open about their sexuality still do not use pronouns in their music. Hayley Kiyoko is a different story. She is explicit in her music about her relationships with women and her attraction to them. While Hayley has released many Early Productions, which include This Side of Paradise and Citrine, her debut album has just now been released, and the world is freaking out.
Expectations was released on March 30, 2018 after months of anticipation. The album can be enjoyed—regardless if you are queer or not—because it has a rich pop sound while also showing some inspiration from the seventies and eighties in terms of pop culture. It has a very modern feel while also sounding very retro, resulting in an album that seems timeless, and tells such a relatable story to every queer girl out there.
The album is a story that every person, regardless of your sexuality, can relate to. It’s the story of you being really into someone and you are wanting to be with them, but they are playing games with you and leading you on. And then suddenly they’re gone, and they’re with someone else. You still have all these feelings for them and you have to come to terms with the fact that they were screwing with your head and your emotions and you have to move on, regardless of your strong feelings for them. Everyone has had an experience similar to this at some point in their life.
Hayley has expressed that the album is inspired by several experiences, though not all with the same girl. She is very passionate about this album and–in a lot of ways–it is very personal. We are seeing into her mind as she navigates through all of these relationships, and it is a truly inspiring and relatable thing to hear throughout her music.
It has generated many positive reviews from critics, such as Lauren Mullineaux who was writing for The 405 and stated that Hayley Kiyoko was “the first unabashedly queer female normalizing this in the mainstream on such a transparent, visible level; through her lyrics and her videos.” She rated the album as a whole an eight out of ten.
Inspiring and utterly captivating, Hayley Kiyoko’s album is one you do not want to miss out on.