As another month passes, more albums of 2021 are being released. Notable albums from this month include Armand Hammer and Alchemist’s HARAM, Genesis Owusu’s Smiling with No Teeth, Lana Del Ray’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and Ian Sweet’s Show Me How You Disappear just to name a few. However, a much smaller release from San Francisco-based artist known as “underscores” grabbed my attention. Decon Karpf, popularly known as “underscores”creates an exciting blend of hyper-pop and pop-punk music on fishmonger.
Opening with the loud guitars and rapid drum break sample of “70%”, fishmonger quickly establishes its bombastic sound. Devon explodes onto the track with yelpy vocals that are smothered in effects and it sounds like he can barely finish his sentences before the drums and guitars crash in again. This out-of-breath feeling only exaggerates the frantic and amped feeling of the song. However, after this chaotic opener that is very based in pop-punk sounds, Devon shows his virtuosity in creating electronic hyper-pop bangers. Similar to the style of hyper-pop group 100 gecs, autotune can be found everywhere and glitchy drums/synths are standard. Devon also brings his uniqueness to this style of music by bringing in the punk elements of “70%”. For example, on “Spoiled little brat” the electric guitar chord progression sounds like something you would hear in a Blink-182 or My Chemical Romance song. fishmonger’s hard-rocking hyper-pop songs may feature loud and abrasive production, but they also feature catchy hooks and simple song structures making this album irresistible.
Every song, however, is not amped up. Songs like “Where did you fall” and “The fish song” showcase cooler production with less sporadic vocal performances. “The fish song” in particular is built around a laid-back acoustic guitar progression. As the song moves along, subtle synthetic sounds add to the minimalistic atmosphere. It is a calm and blissful moment in a mostly abrasive album.
The lyrics on this album are not necessarily the focus, but, as previously stated, Devon writes extremely catchy and memorable hooks. The hypnotic flow of “Bozo bozo bozo” may hide its lyrics of feeling socially awkward and hiding that insecurity behind dancing. Similarly, the upbeat production of “Kinko’s field trip 2006” juxtaposes with the lyrics about struggling with fame. While the lyrics are nothing special nor are they the focus, they are still competently written and fun to sing along to.
The Verdict: For its amazing mind-bending production, and catchy hyper-pop and pop-punk blend, fishmonger is March 2021’s Album of the Month.
