If somebody had tried to explain to me what HLLLYH sounded like before I heard it, there is a good chance I would never have listened to it. The combination of Los Angeles art-punk, 8-bit retro-electronic experimentation and youthful lyrical harmonies covers a whole mess of indie-rock micro-genres that I generally don’t–for lack of a better word–“get.” Fortunately nobody had warned me when I slipped the disk into my CD player for my first listen. Within a few tracks I was hooked. To my increasing amazement the Mae Shi managed to take all these indie-rock idiosyncrasies that tend to separate the die-hard hipsters from the skeptical and sometimes nauseous masses (i.e. me), throw them all together with a healthy dose of pop sensibility, and create a surprisingly accessible concept album without sacrificing their experimental edge.
Though HLLLYH (their 3rd official album) has been my introduction to the band, the Mae Shi are no strangers to the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink school of music creation, having garnered a fair amount of infamy in certain circles for a mixtape cramming their favorite segments of 2,000 tracks into a 70-minute set. And after reportedly terrorizing any birthday party or bar mitzvah in the Los Angeles area for $100 with their raucous live sets and a side gig constructing their own custom effects pedals and synths (available on their website), the band is clearly nothing if not experimental. Since the 2006 departure of founding member and lead singer Ezra Buchola and Drummer Corey Fogel (who went on to form Gowns) the band has regrouped with a new singer, Jonathan Gray, and has brought a level of egalitarian order to the experimental chaos that once defined them. With all members now singing, writing, and playing the Mae Shi have created a loose-fitting pop structure perfectly suited to their diverse collection of influences.
One of HLLLYH’s greatest strengths is that it is one of those rare albums in this day and age that begs to be heard in its entirety. The disparate musical styles, from the cacophonous attack of “Pwnd” and “Party Politics” to the 8-bit antics of “The Melody” and beyond, are shot through with glitteringly catchy pop hooks that provide a perfect antithesis to the pervasive and borderline apocalyptic lyrical themes that solidify the album’s conceptual unity. The conflicting aesthetics in these two major unifying elements of the album are illustrated in the upbeat delivery on tracks like “Run to Your Graves,” in which they chorus “Don’t bury your body with your diamonds/Because you know they’ll dig up your grave” and “Scream, cry, pray, confess/God will do the rest” to head-bobbing hand-claps synths that will have you alternately rocking out and scratching your head as you ponder their meaning. Ultimately, the juxtaposition of the apocalyptic lyrics with the unabashed catchiness of the music leaves the implications of the blatantly biblical themes tantalizingly open to interpretation throughout the album, and gives the whole project immediate appeal as well as an intriguing consistency.