When Laurence Nerbonne made her solo debut with 2016’s XO, she left the sound of her old rock band, Hôtel Morphée, far behind, instead embracing sky-high hooks, slick production, and her irrepressible pep. The Montreal singer pulls off a similar metamorphosis on the follow-up, FEU—a darker, sassier pop record with plenty of hip-hop bounce. "Fausses idoles” ("false idols") sets a defiant tone as Nerbonne puts haters and imitators on blast with a boasting, staggered rap flow and an entrancing trap beat. In the catchy come-on "Semblant," she invites an ex-lover to pretend they're still together, just for one night. But it’s tunes like “#MeToo” that reveal the depths of her songwriting—its dreamy electronics do one thing, while the lyrics, which take misogynists to task with a rather explicit refrain, do quite another.