In the pre-release livestream for her first album in five years, Arca spent the first few minutes on camera interacting with her fans in the online chatroom. It was an inversion of the pop star performance for a post-SOPHIE world, where CDJs are instruments and songs need neither choruses nor discernible structures. It was Arca at her most Arca. XXXXX is an obvious successor to &&&&& and @@@@@, mixtapes that showcased the most freeform aspects of Arca’s musical personality. The heart-palpitating rhythms and glitchy stutters suggest some unholy mix of early Plastikman and Mark Fell, the vestiges of ’90s dance music reanimated into a herky-jerky Frankenstein’s monster.