“You gon’ jump if AG made it”: Five songs that prove AG Cook is the most exciting producer in pop

Posted On September 26, 2024September 26, 2024

The early 2020s have spawned some of the most interesting pop music we’ve seen in over a decade. It’s not enough to write a catchy song with radio-friendly lyrics anymore. Audiences are longing for something more, for neon green Brat summers and disco ball thoroughbreds and exciting remix albums. While some producers might shy away from the challenge, giving in to dependable pop production, AG Cook has risen to the challenge.

Cook has been pushing the boundaries of pop for over a decade now. In the early 2010s, he set up a collective and label called PC Music, working with the likes of Hannah Diamond, GFOTY and Danny L Harle to create a harsher take on the genre. It was metallic and artificial, using excessive autotune and employing futurism both sonically and aesthetically.

A decade later, we know this to be hyperpop, and we know Cook as one of its pioneers. But his work in pop production has now extended far beyond the cult following of PC Music. Before and since the label announced its end, Cook has been expanding his production credits to include more mainstream pop stars, even appearing on Beyonce’s most recent record, Renaissance.

He was also an instrumental figure in the creation of the undisputed album of the summer, Charli XCX’s Brat, utilising their long-standing collaborative relationship to bring her vision to life. Along the way, Cook has become one of the most exciting and innovative producers in the pop realm, infusing the genre with a new sense of intrigue and experimentation when it desperately needed it.

Below, we’ve selected five tracks that prove exactly why Cook is our modern pop production saviour.

Five songs produced by AG Cook:

‘Track 10’ by Charli XCX

AG Cook and Charli XCX have been working together long before Brat summer took over our headphones and our social media feeds. The pair first linked up on Charli’s Vroom Vroom EP, which pushed her towards more futuristic, hyper-pop inspired sounds. A couple of years later, Cook co-produced Charli’s fourth record Pop 2, pushing her sound into even more experimental territory and working alongside a number of other PC Music collaborators.

The record closed with the cryptically titled ‘Track 10’. A remix of an old unfinished Charli song, the track featured Cook’s PC Music trademarks, indecipherable vocals and glitchy soundscapes, but it also preserved the emotion of the track. “Sorry I’m a little scared,” Charli admits, “No one ever really cared.” Even beneath the autotune and otherworldly synths that surround her, the sentiment of Charli’s words is only enhanced.

‘24/7’ by Namasenda

A couple of years after linking up with Charli for Pop 2, Cook and Namasenda got together in the studio for the first time. The result was ‘24/7’, a gorgeous hyperpop song about delicate but desperate love. Namasenda’s words are perfectly polished, with only the occasional autotune glitch and noisy pop moment providing a glimpse at her uncertain passion. “24/7, every second of the year, I am thinking about you, are you thinking about me too?” she asks.

This is some of Cook’s most simplistic production. There are no wildly metallic or experimental sonic choices as in some of the heavier PC Music releases, but each choice, from the echoing vocals to the hopeful pop synths, serves the soft insecurity of Namasenda’s words. ‘24/7’ marked the start of another fruitful partnership, though the Swedish singer is yet to receive her Brat moment.

‘Perfect Picture’ by Hannah Diamond

Hannah Diamond was almost as essential to PC Music as AG Cook was. After the producer started the collective in 2013, Diamond provided it with its first single, the bouncy ‘Every Night’. It kicked hyperpop and the legacy of Cook’s label into gear with artificial pop sounds and playful vocals. A decade later, PC Music may be no longer, but Cook and Diamond’s creative partnership is still thriving.

Last year, the pair reunited for Perfect Picture, Diamond’s second full-length record and one of the final releases on the label that brought them together. The title track demonstrated just how far both parties had come. Cook’s production shows off just how well he knows Diamond’s style, as pretty and artificial as her visuals and youthful vocals.

‘Welcome To My Island’ by Caroline Polachek

Cook isn’t afraid of stepping out of the hyperpop bubble to work with some slightly softer-sounding artists, imbuing their sound with his producing flair. He’s linked up with popstars galore, from Christine and the Queens to the modern queen of the genre herself, Beyoncé. But perhaps his most exciting collaboration to stem from slightly further outside of the PC Music realm was ‘Welcome To My Island’ by Caroline Polachek.

Polachek released with PC Music in the mid-2010s but has since adopted a slightly less hyperpop-focused sound. She played with a wide range of genres and instrumentation on her second record, the acclaimed Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, from Spanish guitars to bagpipes. But the biggest hit on the record was the genre-blending fourth single, ‘Welcome To My Island’. Mixing Cook’s electronic leanings with guitars and ever-wandering vocals, the song remains one of the most interesting entries into the pop genre in recent memory.

‘365’ by Charli XCX

Of course, we can’t talk about Cook’s legacy in modern pop without mentioning Brat. Charli herself shouts out the producer on the opening track to the neon green record, declaring, “You gon’ jump if AG made it,” a declaration he continually proves to be true. ‘360’ is just one example of Cook’s influence on the Mercury-nominated album – he co-produced and co-wrote a large proportion of the record, from ‘Apple’ to ‘Everything is romantic’.

But Cook and Charli both come into their own on the concluding track, the bumpin’ ‘365’. Between a captivating synth line, a subtle sample of a window breaking, and a club-worthy drop at the song’s close, Cook encapsulates the heavier, dancier side of the album in just one song. It’s also further proof of the relationship between him and Charli and the magic they produce each and every time they hit the studio.

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