During the five years between and her self-titled official third album, was busier than ever exploring the different sides of her music. Not only did she found her own label, , she wrote songs for and collaborated with a who's who of pop music. She also released two mixtapes, and , that reflected her mercurial talent -- and her connections to pop's underground and mainstream -- better than either or did. With , she attempts to capture the spontaneity of those releases in a more polished format; more often than not, she succeeds. This is especially true of the collaborations that dominate the album's first half, where she's joined by some of pop's best and brightest. "Gone," which teams with , is a standout that combines the crisp, double-jointed synth pop of 's flair for pop fantasies into a bold '80s fever dream tailor-made for dance-offs. On "Cross You Out," recruits , who expertly adds some extra drama to its hyperreal heartache. The album's timeliest assist comes from , whose irrepressible cameo on "Blame It on Your Love" helps distinguish it from the many other tropical and dancehall-inspired songs released in the late 2010s. However, it's 's two songs with that establish the album's sound and vision. On "1999," the duo delivers an unabashedly nostalgic love song to pop's past, singing the praises of over brittle synths that evoke 's heyday; later, they close the album with "2099," a darkly gleaming track that, thanks to the fractured production of 's , sounds like the landing of a spaceship -- or a time machine. and other members of the collective ensure that never becomes too straightforward, particularly on "Shake It," which features frantically sloshing and clanking tones that match the feverish energy of , , and . In comparison to the album's numerous collaborations, 's solo tracks feel separate, and sound much lonelier. Though "Thoughts" and "I Don't Wanna Know" prioritize a mood of late-night regret over hooks, saves two of the album's best songs -- the bittersweet "White Mercedes" and the tentatively hopeful "Official" -- for herself. While gives equal time to her pop bona fides and her experimental leanings in a way similar to , it doesn't always join these facets of her music as effortlessly. In a way, its unevenness is only fitting for an artist as committed to blurring pop's artistic boundaries and connecting the dots between its past, present, and future as she is -- that she's this hard to pin down this far into her career is exactly what makes her a continually intriguing talent. ~ Heather Phares