anon playable cloud by pet shimmers
songs you should hear: swan ton and wet chems

So far this is my absolute favourite album I've discovered in 2024, although it was released in 2022. I ordered the casette for it just 2 weeks after discovering it - I am obsessed. It started at first with the opening track, Swan Ton, and then I realized the rest of the album is just as amazing. This album is very emotional, it reminds me of the feelings you get smacked with when overstimulated. It feels self destructive in many ways. It makes some political statements as well in songs like Sonder and Wet Chems, about capitalism and overconsumption.

This album is layered beautifully. It has extremely dense instrumentals, but it is mixed SO well. Usually I can listen to music casually/while I'm doing something else, but this album man, when it comes on i HAVE to just sit and listen. Everything is exactly where it needs to be and you can focus on nearly any part of the instrumental. There's some real fun noises in here, being largely digital. Anon Playable Cloud is amazing at building up and stripping down and building up - The best example I think is Swan Ton. These songs get so loud and so quiet and so loud again.

The lyrics on here are amazing too, man. Lately I've been really into music that seems to use words as more than something to portray a thought or emotion, but use it to be artistic in of itself. Words that sound GOOD together. Obviously all music does this to some extent - You rhyme words and try to keep the right amount of syllables. But the lyricist in Pet Shimmers does it so much better than most. Because they treat lyrics as its own medium like an instrument, they can create some weird rhyming or non-rhyming schemes that still manage to sound amazing, when another artist may make them janky. If you like this type of writing, you should also check out Horsegirl. Some of these lyrics have reallys stuck with me too, like "If we don't capsize by summer, everything will be fine" which made me promptly change my username on twitter & insta to capsizebysummer.