Kinda Muffled Sound But The Bass Is Loud

Chloe Moriondo “Girls with Gills”

“Girls With Gills” is a quick, fast club banger that is literally about girls…with gills. Chloe Moriondo’s lyrics are absurd and whimsical, but delivered in a deadpan tone that borders on playing it straight without a wink. I’d be a mark for a song like this regardless of what the lyrics are, but I love hearing something so silly instead of the standard sex/love/neuroses boilerplate. Like, why not do a satire of club culture in which everyone happens to be amphibious?

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Adéla “SexOnTheBeat”

“SexOnTheBeat” presents as a dance pop song with generic sexy lyrics, but pay a little more attention and it’s more of an ironic critique of pop industry conventions. Adéla participated in Dream Academy, the music competition show that assembled the popular girl group Katseye, but she didn’t make the cut. This song is pretty straightforwardly about the pressures of existing in a context like that, and the dynamics of objectifying yourself and making your sexuality a commodity. It’s not exactly negative about it – if anything, she’s made herself more sexualized than she’d be if she was in Katseye – but there’s a lot of ambivalence and mild bitterness in how she sings “serve it on a silver platter, baby,” “make you think the choice is mine”, and “begging you to fetishize” in the chorus.

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