Album Review: Gabi Belle - "City Girl"

YouTuber and musician Gabi Belle's debut album City Girl is a joyful homage to the city pop genre. It has a bubbly, colorful vibrancy that's fun and charming to listen to, despite its technical shortcomings.

Gabi Belle - 2026

The YouTuber to musician pipeline has been well documented at this point, so I won't give you a history lesson here... but there's a new album that caught my attention from the likes of YouTuber, commentator, singer, and musician Gabi Belle. Belle has been around for several years now from the likes of YouTube, making commentary videos about Gordon Ramsey's TV shows to Spotify's not so perfect shuffle feature to the entirety of the Fast and Furious franchise. She's a fun watch! She loves video games, the Beatles, and making quirky jokes that can come off as charming and funny. I for one have been a fan of her videos for a few years now and only vaguely have known Belle as a musician. She has released a couple singles over the years. She's culminated a batch of tracks that go together pretty seamlessly into a collection of city pop songs, which is a Japanese originated genre of retro funk and jazz pop that's had a recent resurgence over the past decade or so.

City Girl is the name of her debut album, so it makes sense with all of the city pop influences and imagery (including the playful album art). In collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and producer Josh Dare, City Girl has a bubbly, colorful vibrancy that's fun and charming to listen to. Singles like "Elevator Ride" are instantly infectious and enjoyable with a sharp chorus and smart switch-up that goes from disco-pop to bossa nova in one full motion. "Brigadeiro," aka "The Bing Bong Song," is another charming tune where Belle sings about how to literally make the Brazilian dessert step by step, which also features one of her best vocal moments on the record. It's also a song she often will place in the background of her videos, which is nice to hear over her commentary on how and why Bella's father from the Twilight series is indeed very hot. "Perfect Fantasy" is a blissful tune that could've fit instrumentally on Destroyer's Kaputt record. "New Moon" is a beautiful, acoustic ballad that's reminiscent of a throwback ballad from an old jazz standards record from the 50's. The album's title track is a quirky, fun disco tune that has these car honks in the track's chorus, which I can't help but find endearing.

There are more modern influences within Belle's music too. She takes on some of her favorites, like the cheeky vocal delivery that's reminiscent of Sabrina Carpenter on "I Guess" or Laufey on the cutesy "Liar." Belle likes to wear her influences on her sleeve throughout the album, but for the most part she seems to find her own footing. Now on the other hand, where City Girl falters from becoming a great pop record is within the mixing and vocal department. Belle has a fairly strong voice that has some nice range to it. It's not too shabby! She just could use some stronger vocal prowess or even help from the production to place her voice more into the forefront of the song. The mixing has more of a flat sound that is a little too muddied for my liking. If the vocals are bumped up more and the mixing was indeed better, then City Girl would be a far more enjoyable experience. That being said, as far as YouTuber music records go, Belle is pretty solid at her craft and if she were to expand her sound further, I hope she continues to clean up these issues. Overall, everything sounds pretty professional sounding, which is impressive to hear on a debut album. The instrumentation is colorful, fun, and likeable along with her personality and lyrics too. City Girl is a joyful homage to the city pop genre. Despite the technical shortcomings, it's still a successful endeavor not to scoff at.

My Rating: 6 / 10

Favorite Songs: "Elevator Ride," "Brigadeiro," "Perfect Fantasy," "New Moon"