This review was paid for by novamunch. If you too want me to review your music, or any other release of your choosing, please place a commission here.
Final verdict: 8/10 ★★★★☆
See, the issue with the “alternative rock” label is that everything can be termed that nowadays. Times have changed, and the alternative is now the mainstream – the highly became lowly, the rich poor, so what difference does it all make? This is the musical melting pot theory at work, this right here. Regardless, it would feel unnatural to term tunes such as myqo’s “Resist!” anything other than alternative – drenched in fragments of synth-punk and mild psychedelia by way of shoegaze, this intimidatingly-titled oddity definitely does not piece into the “mainstream,” so to say. It is a thing of its own, a planet orbiting around none other than itself. Great stuff, really.
While we are at it, please allow me to highlight the difference between what I tout “existentialism lite” and its evil cousin, “existentialism proper”; these two kinds of existentialism look deceptively alike at first glance, but they are, indeed, divergent. Existentialism lite is more so concerned with the individual struggle initiated by the perception of a bleak reality, while existentialism proper is more radical in its cynicism – it views dystopia as an all-encompassing realm that consumes every living being on the planet. A different way to illustrate this concept would be to describe it as more of a worldview than a state of mind (like existentialism lite is). I find “Resist!” to fall more into the existentialism lite domain, as it is preoccupied with a specific subject’s troubled outlook – that egocentric point of view adds to the punk sensibility present here. It is an angsty, youthful perspective, which is something that has been lost to time, with the rise of nonchalance. Seriously, what ever happened to caring? myqo (and his colleague Joshua Chiang, who’s featured on “Resist!”) get it.
“Resist!” is like a TikTok song, but like, in the good way. It is the poster child of the collective damaged psyche, a vivid illustration of modern anxieties and grievances. It brings actually giving a shit about being back into vogue, and for that, I respect it. 8/10.
Leave a comment