Review Summary: The future of music that we should hope for
I consider myself a huge underscores fan, and my main goal with this review is to encourage all my readers to listen to her music if you haven’t already – I recommend starting with her most recent album
Wallsocket and then check out her debut
Fishmonger if you vibe it. It’s not just for fans of hyperpop; underscores’ unique blend of indie rock and electronica, soundtracking a combination of emo and cunty lyricism should appeal to a wider audience (and anyone who likes an earworm will enjoy “Girls And Boys”).
Boneyard AKA Fearmonger is a 7-track EP that bridges her two albums, and a project I hadn’t heard in full until now. Thankfully, it takes an all-killer-no-filler approach of distilling her brand into a 19-minute caffeine fix, and unsurprisingly it represents an evolution of
Fishmonger’s DIY, almost lo-fi sound, towards
Wallsocket’s genre-blending, pop-leaning eccentricity.
“Heck” and “Gunk” displays her penchant for writing emo-tinged ballads, with heart-wrenching lyricism drawn from her honest reflections on a trans lived experience (if you’re a Jane Remover fan, you should definitely be checking this out). “Loansharks” is an indie-country-dubstep odyssey with a truly inspired sound design that only a virtuosic, terminally online composer could create (if you’re a Skrillex fan, you should definitely be checking this out).
And the aforementioned “Girls And Boys” stands out as one of underscores’ best songs to date, with a chart-toppingly catchy hook that is underscored (pardon the pun) by both a stomping Dance Dance Revolution-esque beat, as well as by distorted, chip-tune guitars. It doesn’t make sense on paper, but comes together in an exciting whirlwind of boundary-pushing creativity that everyone should check out at least once!
