God, I love me a good sapphic pop album. A good summer-hit-loaded album to put on when getting ready for a night out in your local queer bar, somewhere between drinking a lil caffeinated beverage in your friend’s kitchen and putting way too much eyeliner on your waterline. I almost gave up hope of getting such a thing this year, until Reneé Rapp singlehandedly saved the pop part of my summer.

She delivered the perfect combination of desire, yearning, lesbian sex, attitude, messy breakups, but most importantly, a hell lot of personality. Seeing her perform Shy, Leave Me Alone and Mad made it perfectly clear to me how big Bite Me, her second studio album, is gonna be – because she was just having such a blast being herself. Reneé has made an album that lyrically represents her and every lesbian you know, that musically suits her better than anything she has ever made before. Fully leaning into the theater kid personality, she makes it impossible to look away when she’s on stage, and you just know she lived through everything she sings about. And that’s what I’ve been missing in latest pop releases. A narrative so riveting that you can’t wait to play the next song to dig deeper into a relationship drama that feels like it’s yours. An album that feels like reading a hot (preferably queer) romance with catchy tunes playing in the background. 

So if you’re stuck in yet another summer lesbian situationship, Bite Me is gonna be the perfect soundtrack to it. If not, it’s about damn time you got into one (because Reneé would want it that way.) And if you’re straight, let this album be the introduction to lesbianism and good pop music you didn’t know you needed.