Pop artist April Harper Grey, recognized by their stage name, underscores, released her third studio album, titled “U,” on March 20, 2026. The album features nine songs and has a runtime of 34 minutes and eight seconds.
The title of the album, “U,” resembles underscore’s upside-down headphones, which is a symbol that she has been using to represent and promote her music. The upside-down headphones symbolize an experimental and alternative theme within her music and makes an appearance on the album cover made by the Japanese artist Ochiai Shohei who often gives a slight unfinished look to his art. The album cover seems to be of a mall and within it, there is a billboard with the upside down headphones. Fans speculate that the mall depicted could be based on the mall of Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco.
With every album underscores has released, there has been a consistent use of producer tags integrated within the song. Tags are used amongst artists, which can help their music get recognized as theirs, since no tag is the same. A tag can be anything, a sound effect, a word or phrase, a specific instrument pattern. For “U,” the tag used was “I-O-U,” it will only ever be used for underscore’s “U” era, which shows exclusivity in the tag. In her “fishmonger” album, the tag was “It’s the new wave of the future!” and in her “Wallsocket” album, the tag was “Good Luck!”
On April 11, at Coachella 2025, underscores debuted the lead single “Music,” and on June 27, 2025, she officially released the song to streaming services. “Music” was rated in the top 45 songs of 2025 according to Pitchfork. “Music” is titled to sound like a generic, brandless product; however, what she sings about contradicts the generic title. She makes it clear that music is true human emotions being embedded into art, not just a product consumed by an audience.
Underscores performed “Do It” on Oct. 3, 2025 at CIRCUS, Tokyo. This would later become the second single of the album, on Nov. 4, 2025 when it was released to streaming services. The song shares the difficulty of getting close to their partner when one is a well recognized artist. She puts constant effort into maintaining a positive appearance for the public, going as far as keeping personal information and topics anonymous from their own partner.
“Don’t you get it? / People get my lyrics tattooed on their bodies / It’s all under control, ‘less you f*** with it / I’m tryna run a business here, come on, babe / Mm, don’t take it personal,” underscores said.
Underscores released the third and final single of the album, “Tell Me (U Want It),” to streaming services and had it broadcast on BBC Radio 1 ’s New Music Show on Feb. 25, 2026.
The album’s fourth track, “The Peace,” depicts underscores willing to change herself to keep someone in her life, even though she knows it will harm her. Peace is a cigarette brand that is referred to in the song countless times, which is the opposite of what’s expected, since cigarettes cause harm, not peace.
“And I won’t smoke unless you’re smoking too / Uh, yeah, I just wanna keep the peace with you, yeah,” underscores said.
Underscores hosted a listening party as a YouTube premier on March 19, 2026, 8 p.m. EST. Giving fans a full playthrough of the album a few hours before being released to streaming services. The music video consisted of underscores walking around the Stonestown Galleria mall in San Francisco, while occasionally dancing to her music. The music video plays through every song in her album in order.
Underscores also announces the “GALLERIA North American Chapter” tour with umru, a special guest, to perform the album. With the ticket, there are two other options to choose from: the U-LIGHT which comes with an exclusive light-up accessory shaped like the water tower in underscore’s debut album, “fishmonger.” There’s also a VIP option which comes with the light-up accessory, an exclusive tote bag, a VIP-exclusive badge and early access to merchandise.
“U,” underscore’s third studio album, presents the audience with a completely new tone, incomparable to her last two albums, nine tracks, all produced and sung herself. The album is blended with mixed emotions: going from a romantic, to stressed, then to being the most joyful version of herself, all in the same album.
