''Hey U X'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by New Zealand singer-songwriter Benee, released on 13 November 2020 by

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

. ''Hey U X'' was primarily written by Benee and frequent collaborator

Josh Fountain Kidz in Space is a New Zealand pop and hip-hop group, consisting of Josh Fountain, Ashley Hughes and Mat "Neesh" Neshat. Their costumed media appearances have been likened to those of band, Split Enz. Formation Hughes and Neshat knew each othe ...

, who also executive produced the record. It features guest appearances from

Grimes Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...

Lily Allen Lily Rose Beatrice Allen (born 2 May 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Her music career began in 2005 when she made some of her vocal recordings publi ...

Flo Milli Tamia Monique Carter (born January 9, 2000), known professionally as Flo Milli, is an American rapper. She rose to prominence after her songs "Beef FloMix" and "In the Party" went viral on the social media platform TikTok, eventually leading the ...

Gus Dapperton Brendan Patrick Rice (born March 11, 1997), better known by his stage name Gus Dapperton, is an American singer and songwriter from Warwick, New York. History Dapperton has received particular attention for his fashion style, consisting at som ...

Mallrat Grace Kathleen Elizabeth Shaw (born 25 September 1998), known professionally as Mallrat, is an Australian musician, singer, and rapper from Brisbane. Mallrat has released three EPs: ''Uninvited'' (2016), ''In the Sky'' (2018) and '' Driving Mu ...

and

Bakar Bakar ( it, Buccari; hu, Szádrév) is a town in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia. The population of the town was 8,279 according to the 2011 Croatian census, including 1,473 in the titular settlement. Ninety percent of the ...

. Supported by four singles—"

Night Garden "Night Garden" is a song by New Zealand singer Benee featuring American producer Kenny Beats and British musician Bakar, released on 15 July 2020 as the lead single from her debut studio album ''Hey U X'' (2020). Background and composition " ...

", "

Snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

", "

Plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

", and "Kool",—''Hey U X'' debuted and peaked at number two on the

NZ Albums Chart New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country b ...

and number twenty-two on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, with

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and c ...

listing it among their best albums of 2020.

Background and release

Benee told ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' that she would be releasing an album in 2020, before formally announcing the release of ''Hey U X'' on 15 October 2020. She had revealed prior to this that it would differ musically from her existing repertoire, telling ''

Uproxx ''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...

:'' On the namesake, she told ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'', "'Hey u x' was something that was something that I thought was cute. I feel like there's never a word that sums up the whole thing… I try to just find something that's completely relevant." The album track "All the Time" features Raglan-based musician

Muroki Muroki Mbote Wa Githinji (born 2000/2001), known mononymously as Muroki, is a Kenyan-New Zealand reggae musician. A member of the bands Cloak Bay and Masaya, Muroki debuted as a solo musician in 2019. In 2021, Muroki's song "Wavy" became a hit ...

who became the first signee to Benee's record label, Olive, which she established in early October 2020. Shortly after the announcement of Olive, Benee embarked on a national headlining arena tour of New Zealand after the country had reported no cases of COVID-19. She performed eight shows across four cities, with the final show at

Spark Arena Spark Arena (also known as Auckland City Arena, and formerly as Vector Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Auckland, New Zealand. The venue is located at Quay Park, Parnell, very close to Britomart Transport Centre and The Strand Station. The ar ...

selling out all 12,000 seats and becoming the first sold-out concert at the venue to be

livestreamed Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

to ticketholders.

Composition

Benee revealed to ''

'' that the album "infus selements of 'hardcore'

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

usicwith

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

-style beats".

Singles

" featuring British musician

and American producer

Kenny Beats Kenneth Charles Blume III, known professionally as Kenny Beats, is an American record producer, audio engineer, and songwriter. Early life Kenneth Blume III was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. He has been studying music since the age ...

was released on 15 July 2020 as the album's official lead single. "

" was released on 10 August 2020 and served the album's second single. Both "Night Garden" and "Snail" received music videos to support their release. "

" was released on 27 October 2020 as the third single, but did not receive a music video to support its release. "

Kool Kool may refer to: People * Kool (surname), surname of Dutch origin * Robert "Kool" Bell (born 1950), American bassist and founder of Kool and the Gang * Roger Kool (1954–2005), Singaporean DJ (Roger Kiew) * Kool DJ Herc (born 1955), Jamaican� ...

" was released as the fourth single from the album, along with a music video. ''Hey U X'' also includes the song "

Supalonely "Supalonely" is a song by New Zealand singer Benee featuring American singer Gus Dapperton, released through Republic Records on 6 December 2019 as the third and final single from her second extended play '' Stella & Steve'' (2019). It also ap ...

" featuring

, which served as the third single from the 2019 EP ''

Stella & Steve ''Stella & Steve'' is the second extended play by New Zealand singer Benee, released on 15 November 2019 by Republic Records. It was supported by three singles; " Find an Island", "Monsta", and "Supalonely", featuring Gus Dapperton, which the ...

'', and achieved mainstream international success following its popularization on the social media platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

in early 2020.

Critical reception

''Hey U X'' received mostly positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 78 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

ranked the album at number 16 on their list of the 20 best albums of 2020.

Track listing

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hey U X 2020 debut albums Benee albums Albums produced by Josh Fountain Republic Records albums