With a breezy voice that mingles indie-pop whimsy and R&B smoulder, BENEE invites us into her uniquely vivid daydreams about evil spiders, sympathetic monsters and eerie night gardens. Born Stella Rose Bennett, the Auckland export honed her ultra-catchy craft across a pair of EPs before landing big-ticket collaborators like Lily Allen and Grimes for her 2020 debut LP, Hey U X. Yet she hasn’t sacrificed any of the quirkiness that defined her self-deprecating 2019 breakthrough, “Supalonely”, narrating off-kilter psychedelic imagery against a summery future-funk flow informed by bubblegum brightness and a newfound hip-hop swagger.