The drought is officially over! We have been waiting since 2022 for this man to drop a full project, and the anticipation is over. After Bad Habit went number one for three weeks straight, the pressure for a follow-up was actually wild. Now that it is 2026, and Oh Yeah? has finally graced our ears, we have to yap about its yearning, heartbreak, horniness, and more.
If you weren’t aware, Steve originally became a legend for producing most of his discography on GarageBand with nothing but an iPhone and an iRig cable, but Oh Yeah? is a whole different era. He teamed up with producer Marius de Vries (Recording artists he has collaborated with include Björk, Madonna, Massive Attack, The Cranberries, etc.) and executive producer Matthew Castellanos to make this his most engineered and most complete work yet.
Even though he’s using professional studios now, he didn’t lose his usual alternative R&B feel that we love. He mentioned that he wanted to keep his cool intellectual thing while adapting to his massive fame, using Bad Habit as proof that he can be eccentric and still be a mainstream icon. You can really hear the growth from Steve who was a veteran player at 17 (mind you, he was nominated for Ego Death before he even graduated high school) to the electronic sound he developed after DJing in LA.
The title track is a wild psychedelic rock & pop hybrid that touches on existentialism. It features trippy electric guitar riffs that ease you into the world he has created for this entire project. His collaboration with SZA has a soulful, glitchy sound, and the lyrics about trust and infidelity complement the beat. Fun fact, in the song, Steve refers to his father as “tatay” in Tagalog, and which apparently was improvised in the studio. SZA hits back with the relatable line, “Can we get naked instead of talking?” which I personally feel encapsulates Gen Z dating these days. (Not me though, y’all stay safe out here). the feeling is a moody synth single that builds on a subdued bassline with “angelic” vocals from Alice Smith. It addresses a troubled relationship in a way that feels so cinematic.
pure colour is so trip-hop coded (legit feels similar to a Portishead beat), and having the legend Erykah Badu on it was an amazing surprise, but I unfortunately felt it somewhat lacked depth and went on too long & sort of plateaued. nice shoes / in your world starts with a high-energy breakbeat switch, then pivots into a slow-funk second half. It ends with a spoken-word outro in which Steve literally thanks his past loves, a total emotional release, and a shift from his usual cynicism.
On lovesexdrugbomb you can really hear the Tyler, the Creator influence here, and he even helped write it. Cecile Believe is featured too, and whom steve refers to as a human synthesizer, which is pretty accurate. However, the chord progression feels a little simple and more childlike compared to the rest of the album. While I am aware of the more fun juvenile play on the rest of the project, I just wasn’t a fan of it.
bebe is my absolute favorite, and the closing track for this project is psychedelic rock, full of doubt, and it perfectly captures the feeling of a situationship. It’s quite a beautiful & still trippy way to sign off.
Steve explores modern romance, electronic evolution, & many more themes in this oh, yeah? He yaps about the utter impossibility of dating right now and the disaffection that comes from living your entire life through a screen. Much of the project is also a response to emotional trauma, using hedonism and self-sabotage to cope with big existential questions, which I feel a lot of us, his core listener demographic, which skews toward Gen Z and younger millennials (teens to mid-20s), so it’s quite relatable.
He also reflects on how being a famous musician so young left him feeling underdeveloped as a human, drawing from his experience as a 17-year-old vet in the industry, as well as his interest in electronic sounds, which grew from listening to Flying Lotus and Thundercat, who really influenced the textural production on this record.
So, does Oh Yeah? live up to the Gemini Rights legacy? Honestly, it is a bold leap forward into a new world that is uniquely Steve. He managed to keep his signature eccentricity and honesty while making something that feels playful yet intentionally in need of a looooooong therapy session my guy. It’s definitely in my current rotating monthly playlist.
★ Album Rating: 7.5/10 ★