The second ShitKid album in 2020, 20/20 ShitKid is also the best. Åsa Söderqvist is the main player here and she's stripped back the sound of this project to its core. Still trippy and all that, the music of ShitKid on this release captivates. On PNKSLM, this record allows the skewed-pop of ShitKid to seep into the soul.
Now essentially just Åsa Söderqvist, ShitKid conjures up a peppy mood on the synth-y "FARMBOY", while using string samples on the mournful and elegant "Cool Breeze", a highlight here. Elsewhere, "Dying To" and "FREAK" are electro-pop nuggets that owe more to Frank Tovey than Depeche Mode, for example. And if those suggest a straightforwardness lacking in early ShitKid compositions, "Dream Sequence" nods in the direction of recent solo songs from Kim Gordon.
This is bracing stuff, and fairly ambitious too compared to some earlier ShitKid offerings. In that sense, 20/20 ShitKid is the best release from this artist yet, even if the sound here is a bit more direct (in its own odd way) than previous ShitKid albums. For all the bits here that seem hazy, or dreamy, there's a real lo-fi force behind all of these tracks that belies the DIY vibe of the brief album.
20/20 ShitKid is out on Friday on PNKSLM.
More details on ShitKid via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Carolina Nord]