Our minds are always
inundated with information; unavoidably, our emerging music tastes will
reflect that. For Shelf Lives,
this music also exists in an almost satirical opposition to the age of
information, also saturating us sonically with information itself. Like
the hair of the dog curing a hangover, the salve is in the poison.
What
does it mean to be human in an era where technology is so often trying
to emulate that very thing, and where it is getting increasingly
difficult to decipher between reality and curation? Nowadays, our
humanity is decided by our ability to decipher and click on streetlights
in a collection of images, and then we still somehow get it wrong.
Computers are increasingly seeming more and more human these days. Is
this normal? What is normal? Shelf Lives asks this question in their debut album, hypernormaL, after
coming off the tail end of a rapid succession of releases of catching
singles. Collaborating with the likes of Danio from Fred Again and Lola
Sam from Hot Wax, they create their own dreamy vivarium of childlike,
bass-heavy, and angry glittering hyperpop.
“2
phoneS but I don’t look at either” feels like a sardonic retort,
reminding us of the overuseof information and physical technology that
has grown on us like a tumor. Even when we intentionally choose not to
look or engage with the technology, we are still fully aware of its
existence, and it holds space in our thoughts either way, even if it is
in its denunciation. Where is the meaning in an age like this? How do we
siphon meaningful information from the false or useless kind?
So
much of the album feels satirical, taunting, and pugilistic. The
taunting becomes embodied especially in "baby sonG" with childlike
rhymes and refrains. Some of the songs feel especially redolent of Underscore’s
sounds. It could be the hyperpop, the effulgent mix of punk
and electropop textures, or the moments of sassy glitchy internet core.
Possibly the most urgent and engaging song on the album, "frissioN" shifts the album into hyperdrive. The shining sun of hypernormaL, "frissioN"’s
fussilating and hectoring beats drive out any possibility of autonomous
thought that could possibly emerge from your brain. Like modern
technology absolutely slamming your brain with intermittent dopamine,
you go empty, and in a good way, sort of cease to exist.
hypernormaL can be summed up particularly by the quote from
the penultimate track, "psychO", “life keeps getting weird, now and
then I need somewhere to spin”. Dancing, headbanging, and
thought-provoking, Shelf Lives’
debut album promises to take us into a new era. Regressive and
childlike but also contrastingly enraged and confident, with its mix of
punk and hyper-pop, hypernormaL feels like the bedazzling of punk rage into sparkling chaos, with lots of glitter.
