Skylar Grey has released her sixth studio album, Wasted Potential. It is still dark and personal, as her earlier work has been, but it has a new tone of ironic distance.
In this new chapter, Skylar wraps a coming-of-age story in bubblegrundge and the result is delightful. Her flavour of bubblegrunge is a blend of Y2K pop, 90s grunge, and confessional songwriting. It feels like Nirvana and the Spice Girls collaborating with Massive Attack. She uses this collage of her adolescent musical influences to create a project rooted in the era in which she first experienced them.
Dear diary
Grey has described the project as a reflection on self-blame, the fear of success, and the pressure to constantly push harder rather than enjoy life as it happens. The album title, pulled from a sarcastic line on the song “Motivation”, plays on these themes:
Takes too much effort to be influential
R.I.P. to my wasted potential
In a similar manner, across 11 tracks, Grey reflects on teenage mistakes, relationships, insecurity, and the complicated feelings tied to her hometown in Wisconsin. Years ago, she wanted to escape it. Now, she looks back with more empathy and warmth. Her lyrics have always been poetic, but they are now less abstract and metaphorical. Some of the tracks revisit her past directly. “Nirvana” gives a glimpse into her childhood bedroom, while “Plastic Water Bottles” is a soft hug for the wild child she once was. Wild, but lonely, as a listener learns from “Cool Kids”.
Meanwhile, songs like “Unfaithful” and “Bruises” explore the topics of guilt, emotional damage, and self-sabotage. The album closes with “That’ll Be Fine”, a song Skylar wrote with her husband Elliott Taylor, which provides a quiet emotional resolution to her deeply personal journey.
A journey inward
It would be a mistake to expect a sunny, bubbly project from Skylar Grey, who we know as an artist with an unflinching gaze when it comes to exploring the darkest corners of the human psyche. However, this time she looks there with kindness. The atmosphere is lighter, and the sense of acceptance running through the album gives listeners hope.