Photo by Mike Monaghan

When it comes to music, pop is my first love. I tend to be an obsessive listener, so when I find something I like I listen to it until I know every peak and valley. While I’ve wandered into forests of folk, hip hop, indie rock, and electronica, I’ve always made my way home to formulaic, mass-appeal pop music. I generally put my pop selections into two main buckets: the uptempo, loud, outgoing pop that you listen to with a car full of friends on your way out on a Friday night, and the everyday, more mellow, easy listening pop that you put on while you get your day started or walk the dogs.

Seattle pop artist AllA’s first EP, Finally, falls comfortably into that second bucket: This is everyday, all day pop. Produced by local producer and songwriter Jake Crocker, the EP maneuvers tactfully from soulful hip-hop vibes to throwback electronic indie pop. Crocker, who recently penned a publishing deal with Sony Music, has had his fingerprints all over Seattle’s pop scene the past few years. He’s worked with fast-rising TikTok star Dempsey Hope, local pop songstress Tinsley, and hip-hop popster Vrillah, mastering the art of making a radio-ready pop production that still leaves room for melody. Now he’s done it again with AllA’s Finally.

AllA (which her bio states is “not like the God”) was born in Russia before moving to Seattle. AllA told Dan’s Tunes the EP “follows trials, observations, and pivotal realizations from [my] twenties. [I] reflect on moments of loneliness, illusions, falling in love, and letting people down. This project is an ode to what was and a welcoming of what could be.”

Finally starts off with “Juice,” and it feels like the first ploom of smoke off a freshly lit blunt. Low rumbling and rolling bass floats and swirls around in the air while plucky synths tap in and out to dancing trap hi-hats, and the vocals go straight into the hook. AllA’s voice effortlessly moves between whispery Billie-Eilish-style phrases and a more soulful approach as she creates classic pop harmony stacks.

The second track, “My Mind,” is the biggest sonic departure from the rest of the EP. The hook is so strong it’ll get stuck in your head before the song is over: “You’re trying to pick me apart / my bones and my broken heart / I’m lying dead in the dark / who’s gonna find me?” asks AllA over airy keys and backing vocals that envelop the whole chorus before dropping into a head-nodding verse with chilled out horns that tap along to snapping fingers. This is pop music magic. It’s the kind of track that isn’t possible to listen to just once. With the warm weather swinging into town, this is the perfect track to turn up with the windows down on your next drive to Golden Gardens.

“Wonder,” the EP’s third track, is the most atmospheric. It starts off with slyly played electric guitar and sweeping reversed guitar samples, as AllA aptly declares, “passion ignited / smoke in the air.” She’s back in that haze that started on “Juice.” The trap hats are back, rolling around while AllA sings about a night out. Catching eyes with someone across the room, she finds herself singing repeatedly, “Tell me if you catch my drift.” This song is all vibes (which is one of those hard to define characteristics, but you know it when you feel it. With ‘Wonder,” you feel it from the moment the music starts). So if AllA is using the word “drift” as a synonym for vibe, the drift’s been caught.

Finally ends with AllA’s funkiest song, “Good Girl.” Some loose finger snaps and Foley pan from left to right around the mix like the pitter patter of raindrops against a window. Electric guitar is picked slowly through a line of effects that make it sound like it’s coming through a broken radio. It’s a rainy Seattle cityscape with an edge underneath: AllA starts with the phrase, “I’m just a flame there, lit the spot / I didn’t mean to rob your heart.” Reverb-drenched ad-libs bounce around in the mix behind her as she tries to make what could be an apology, or maybe just an explanation: “I bet you didn’t think I was this dangerous,” contradicting the “good girl” image the title implies.

Taken together, AllA’s rich voice and Crocker’s carefully selected synths and beats leave you wanting juuuust a little bit more. And that’s one of the secrets behind any great pop project: You’ll find a reason to listen to it on every occasion, whether it’s Monday, Wednesday, or (Finally…) Friday.