HypernormaL is packed with Shelf Lives' glittering chaos

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.