girls like girls the album
Hayley Kiyoko · Indie Pop / Queer Pop
Reviewed 2026-06-12
The Roast
“Hayley Kiyoko has spent eleven years squeezing every last drop out of one viral 2015 single, and honestly? The audacity is inspiring. 'girls like girls the album' is what happens when a lesbian Jesus decides the sermon needs a novel, a movie, a soundtrack, AND a fancy vinyl variant, all at once. You built a multimedia empire on a four-minute song that hit 145 million YouTube views, which is either the most efficient use of a thesis statement in pop history or the longest victory lap ever pressed to 'rough seas' colored wax. We are still figuring out which. The album clocks in at 14 tracks and roughly 45 minutes, which is a perfectly reasonable runtime, except you have stacked the guest list so high with Chelsea Cutler, Young Miko, Tegan and Sara, Gigi Perez, Joy Oladokun, and August Ponthier that the whole thing risks feeling less like a cohesive artistic statement and more like a very gay variety show with a film tie-in. Six feature artists across 14 tracks is not collaboration, it is delegation. At a certain point, Hayley, your own album needs to hear more from you than from your extremely talented friends. And then there is the elephant in the gatefold jacket: only four of these fourteen songs actually appear in the film. You are selling this as a 'film soundtrack slash studio album' but mathematically it is 71 percent studio album and 29 percent soundtrack. That is not a hybrid. That is a pop record wearing a film badge to skip the velvet rope. The branding is doing a lot of heavy lifting that the tracklist itself is not quite finishing.”
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The Bright Side
Here is what nobody can take away: the thematic ambition is real, the execution is earnest, and the queer pop ecosystem Kiyoko has built over a decade is genuinely one of the most sustained, community-rooted careers in modern pop. Tegan and Sara on a Kiyoko record is not just a booking flex, it is a lineage statement, and that lineage matters. The 'rough seas' vinyl is a genuinely beautiful piece of merch that rewards the fans who have been here since the original single. For a first-time feature film director who is ALSO releasing the soundtrack ALSO based on her NYT bestselling novel, the sheer organizational feat deserves real credit. Lesbian Jesus did not build this church overnight, and the congregation is clearly still growing.
Hardest Sneer
“You turned one 2015 bop into a novel, a movie, and a 14-track album, which is either visionary world-building or the most elaborate refusal to let a song retire gracefully.”
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Issues (4)
Guest Star Surplus: Your Album Called, It Wants Its Spotlight Back
Receipt
Six credited collaborators across 14 tracks: Chelsea Cutler, Young Miko, Tegan and Sara, Gigi Perez, Joy Oladokun, and August Ponthier. That is a feature artist appearing on average every 2.3 tracks.
Fix
Audit the sequencing so at least the album's first half belongs almost entirely to your solo voice. Save the ensemble moments for the back stretch so the record builds toward community rather than opening with a crowd and leaving listeners unsure whose album they are actually on.
Soundtrack Tax: Calling It a Film Score When Only 4 of 14 Tracks Qualify
Receipt
Per the official release notes, only four songs appear in the film 'Girls Like Girls,' yet the album is marketed under exclusive license to Focus Features as both soundtrack and studio album.
Fix
Be transparent in the marketing hierarchy: lead with 'studio album' and position the soundtrack designation as the bonus context, not the headline. Audiences who buy expecting a cinematic experience and get a pop record will feel misled, and misled fans write the worst reviews.
The Decade-Long Single Stretch: First Love Themes With a Ten-Year Expiration Date
Receipt
The project is described as 'a spiritual expansion' of the 2015 single 'Girls Like Girls,' with themes centering on 'first love and self-discovery,' which were also the exact themes of the original song, the 2023 YA novel, and now this album.
Fix
Push at least two tracks on the album into thematic territory beyond first love, specifically into what comes AFTER: the maintenance of love, its complications, its mundane beauty. You have earned the right to write about queer relationships that are not beginnings. Give your audience something to grow into.
The Vinyl Exclusive Trap: Rewarding Webstore Fans, Punishing Everyone Else
Receipt
The 'rough seas' colored vinyl with gatefold jacket is exclusive to the artist's webstore, meaning it is unavailable through standard retail or streaming-adjacent physical channels.
Fix
Consider a timed exclusive window of 4 to 6 weeks on the webstore, then release the variant more broadly. Exclusivity builds hype but erodes goodwill with fans who cannot afford to monitor a webstore drop. The gatefold packaging is genuinely lovely and more people should be able to hold it.