On Repeat: Mmmoooaaaaayaya by Illuminati Hotties Is The Antidote To The Pretension Inside And Outside Of Music
Tristan Young @talltristan
You really need to consider the merits of Iluminati Hotties within the context of the broader pop landscape. It’s not exactly intended to be analyzed in a vacuum- and yes the near obscenely jocular brand of surfer punk pop from Sarah Tudzin and her new album Let Me Do One More is absolutely worth analyzing. One may argue, perhaps erroneously, that art is supposed to stand on its own and withstand judgment on more solipsistic terms, but if one rather assumes that art is a reflection of our times, then the track Mmmoooaaaaayaya is a veritable fun house mirror. The guitar chords are so tightly wound that warbling after effects throw the whole thing delightfully off kilter. Spartan but suspiciously playful indie punk arrangements create an oddly inviting delinquent tenor to the slapstick beat, with Tudzin playing the part of defiant misanthrope perfectly. “You think I’m interesting don’t you/think I’m fascinating won’t you”, Tudzin snarls with petulant sarcasm but also a sub textual layer of deriding wit. Her scrappy insolence and elastic enunciations blurs the line between her being a little shit and an impressively acrobatic vocalist almost entirely. Tudzin drags the obnoxious lack of self-actualization that hinders everything from “self appointed start ups” to spiritual journeys of inner discovery in equal measure. Be it material importance or the mental primacy of whatever is in vogue right now, it’s all a joke to her. She sub tweets the dominance of sad lady folk rock with, “I’m so sad I can’t do laundry”, effectively parodying the entire movement while barely lifting a finger. Lest one resign her to a rhetorical nihilist in the era of really feeling things, Tudzin shows just how much substance she can casually muster with an electrifying display of throwing her spasmic voice across a spectrum of insane tones with sardonic glee; “an extra terrestrial I used to be grounded baby”, she says in a gluttonous gurgle. Just as it appears she may have a point behind her making fun of all the indie rock tropes de jour, she proves that yes she in fact does, closing out with, “If you’re not laughing honey, then you’re not making money”. As she hits that triumphant escalation the drum fills bleed out with rapturous fidelity and the guitars hurl upwards along a cascading rise with remarkable weight and fluidity, ejecting whorls of glossy sonic viscera like a jet stream. It’s a figurative and literal high note. By asserting how little she cares about pop zeitgeist, Tudzin may have just accidently stumbled into being a worthy inclusion herself.