AIKO TOMI releases new album

Since first landing with her debut single “Lotto” back in 2020, Toronto-based artist AIKO TOMI has earned a reputation for keeping audiences guessing. Coining her own genre lane with what she calls “internet-tinged diaspora-pop,” AIKO TOMI has consistently blurred the lines between culture, chaos and glitter-drenched futurism. Her sound is always exciting and unpredictable, offering a hyper-stylised window into both personal experience and digital-age aesthetics.

Following her 2021 EP For the Love, the well-received debut album Animal’s Awake, which arrived in 2023 with enough wild, left-field pop experimentation to make an impact across the underground scene. Her 2024 output, including the Delulu Demon EP and a string of high-octane singles including a collaboration with Jesse Lucas on “INVOICE,” hinted at a new chapter. And now, she’s fully thrown open the gates with Everything Sparks Joy, her highly anticipated sophomore album and perhaps her most fully realised statement yet.

The album serves up a nine-track sugar rush that blends hyperpop chaos with moments of philosophical reflection, the record finds AIKO shape-shifting with style and smarts, equal parts exuberance and sly self-awareness. From start to finish, it’s a frenetic, high-gloss descent into overstimulated joy, existential reflection and everything in between.

It’s maximalism with conviction, blurring diva theatrics and bratty energy which sees AIKO darting between personas in a way that feels exhilarating but never out of control. “This album concept was born when I was called out for being full of shit for saying that I’m a minimalist at heart. My response was, ‘I’m not a hoarder, I’m just an indecisive minimalist—EVERYTHING sparks joy,’” she shares.

Title track “Everything Sparks Joy” kicks things off with layers of vocal samples as the rattle of percussion and bubble of synths filter in to form a crisp electronic scene. With AIKO’s hushed spoken word style vocals gliding over the fuzzy clatter of the beat and colourful synth pips, she casts a bright and playful soundscape that’s at once avant-garde and memorable.

Accompanied by a new video shot in Taipei, Taiwan, it captures that surreal euphoria of chasing something new, moments that burn and vanish too fast, but leave an lasting impression. The visuals, like the music, sit somewhere between dream and overload, brimming with intimacy, colour and adrenaline-drenched beauty.

“BOUNCE” follows with the building pulse of synth layers before jumping into an uptempo synth pop sound, flowing with rolling vocal leads and thumping beats. With stabbing synth shots and stacks of immersive instrumentation, it’s a driving ride that intricate pairs delicate melodic flickers with charging electronic pop energy.

With “gliiitch,” the rustle of stuttered percussion sets up an experimental, hip hop-tinged outing that progresses with muted, processed vocal dashes and shimmering synth textures. Other highlights on the record include songs like “Violently Kawaii” with its bouncy vocal lines, warm synth tones and sapping percussion, resulting in a smooth synth pop jam that filters AIKO’s fiercely original sonic vision through a grooving and instantly catchy framework.

“296” sees her lean into a moody dark pop sound brimming with instrumental intensity and expressive vocal style, offering a dramatic beat-driven listening experience. Closing the album with “Some Lights Need to be Dimmed,” the flutter of upbeat synth tones, hazy vocal elements and gentle taps of drums form an engrossing sound that flourishes with infectious vocal hooks to deliver an anthemic finale to AIKO TOMI’s sensational second album.

Listen to Everything Sparks Joy below