HYPS first appeared on my feed through a handful of short clips, but after spending time with these singles, I found myself completely drawn into their world.

Musically, the songs live comfortably alongside dream pop and shoegaze. I kept hearing echoes of Cocteau Twins in the shimmering guitars, layered vocals, and dense atmosphere. But what makes HYPS stand out is that these songs don’t simply float by in a beautiful haze.

Each one quietly explores a different kind of attachment.

Whether it’s grief, love, or infatuation, the songs ask difficult questions about why we hold onto people long after they’re gone—or why we struggle to let them go at all. And who we are without them.

“Getting Better Feels Awful” (2026)

The guitars shimmer, the drums remain steady, and the layered vocals drift so high above the music that the voice almost becomes another instrument rather than the song’s focal point. It’s the kind of production that demands headphones and closed eyes.

The song itself left me thinking about grief. Not simply losing someone, but reaching that uncomfortable stage where healing begins.

When you’re grieving deeply, the sadness becomes one of the last remaining connections to the person you’ve lost. It’s painful, but it’s still a connection.

The first time you laugh again, or realize you haven’t cried all day, that relief can feel strangely frightening. Moving forward almost feels like forgetting.

Whether or not that’s exactly what HYPS intended, that’s where the song took me.

It captures that heartbreaking moment when getting better feels less like healing and more like betrayal.

“Off a Ledge” (2026)

The dream-pop textures remain, but they’re wrapped around a much more immediate alt-pop structure. The rhythm section pushes everything forward while the vocals adopt a lighter, almost twee quality that makes the song feel brighter on the surface.

Beneath that momentum, though, I heard something far less comforting.

The song feels consumed by the fear of losing someone. I couldn’t decide whether it was about desperation, codependency, or simply the terrifying vulnerability that comes with loving another person.

That uncertainty actually makes the song stronger.

HYPS disguises romantic vertigo inside one of the catchiest songs of the three.

“Wasted on a Wish” (2025)

This song continues moving toward indie pop while still carrying the band’s dreamy DNA.

A wonderfully understated guitar line—one that occasionally reminded me of Johnny Marr—anchors the song while HYPS’s layered vocals float weightlessly above it. The contrast between the grounded guitars and the dizzy vocal arrangements perfectly mirrors what I found myself hearing in the lyrics.

To me, this became a song about falling in love with an idea rather than a person.

It’s that exhausting mental loop of replaying conversations, imagining futures, reading too much into every interaction, and slowly becoming more attached to a fantasy than reality itself.The music feels beautiful.The emotional trap underneath it feels anything but.

“I Only Exist When You See Me” (2025)

Musically, this leans further into hazy dream pop. The vocals are covered in effects and a slight distortion, floating through the mix while still carrying an incredible emotional weight. It’s gorgeous, but there’s something quietly devastating beneath the beauty.

A song about losing your identity inside another person. Rather than existing independently, the narrator seems to believe they only become real when someone else acknowledges them. Whether that’s romantic codependency, insecurity, or something else entirely, I couldn’t say for certain. What I do know is that it’s one of the bleakest emotional ideas in these songs, presented with remarkable tenderness.

“Crushing” (2025)

“Crushing” may be the brightest sounding song in the collection. The dreamy production remains, but everything feels lighter on its feet. The steady rhythm almost skips along while HYPS captures the emotional contradictions of having a crush.

Excitement, anxiety, hope, embarrassment, fantasy—they all exist together.

Placed alongside the newer singles, the song almost feels like the beginning of the emotional journey. Before grief. Before heartbreak. Before losing yourself inside another person.

Just that familiar feeling of allowing someone new to occupy your thoughts.

These singles showcase that HYPS understands how to use dream pop as more than an aesthetic.

The gorgeous guitars, whisper-soft vocals, and immersive production aren’t there simply to sound beautiful.

They’re emotional environments.

Each song invites you into a different state of mind, allowing you to inhabit grief, longing, obsession, and uncertainty rather than simply observe them from a distance.

I’m looking forward to hearing where HYPS goes next.

Verdict: Great

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