underscores - Wallsocket (Director’s cut) (2024) Hi-Res

Wallsocket is the second studio album by the American musician Underscores. It was released by Mom + Pop Music on September 22, 2023. After rising to prominence with her debut album Fishmonger in March 2021, Underscores began recording Wallsocket in January 2022. A higher budget allowed her to focus on immersion. The album's fictional Wallsocket, Michigan, setting was inspired by the Idaho home of her grandparents, social commentary on the upper middle class in slasher films, and rural American horror films. Across the album's characters, she eventually convinced herself to discuss transgender identity and the horseshoe theory. The songs were written acoustically first and inspired by country and blues sonics, as well as 2010s pop. The album features appearances from Gabby Start, Henhouse!, and Jane Remover.

Wallsocket is primarily pop, rock, and folk, with a large sonic palette and stark turns. A concept album about three girls navigating adulthood, it explores themes of corporatization, religion, gun violence, and class resentment. Wallsocket was promoted with five singles, a tour across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and an alternate reality game involving websites of its fictional town setting. Critics enjoyed the album's frenzied production and character-driven narrative, and many considered it an improvement over Fishmonger. Several publications featured it on their year-end lists.