Label: Dog Show Records / Atlantic Records
Released: 17th March 2023
100 gecs’ debut album ‘1000 gecs’ is one of the most divisive but influential albums in recent memory. The difficulty though when you define a sound and are heralded as figureheads of a scene in the form of the much-quoted hyperpop is, what comes next? How can you possibly top it when you’ve already taken things to the extreme? It’s a challenge that 100 gecs are definitely up for but succeed to mixed results on their long-awaited follow up, ‘10,000 gecs’.
All the hallmarks of Dylan Brady and Laura Les are present and correct. The pitch shifted vocals. The careering tempos. The sea sick inducing crash bang wallop between different sounds and styles but here they feel like they hit differently. As the hyperpop scene has fragmented and in some cases coalesced into more overtly rock sounds then gecs represent that with their hardest hitting material yet. Opening track ‘dumbest girl alive’ comes in like a sledgehammer riding a massive Slayer style guitar riff and tracks like ‘hollywood baby’ are similarly fairly down the line rock songs. They’re great but feel like they’re just lacking a special quality.
When they really amp up the prime quality gecsiness like on the clattering ‘one million dollars’ or the sequel to ‘stupid horse’ that is the bubblegum pop kids song soundalike of ‘frog on the floor’ all the super intoxicating charm of 100 gecs comes flooding back. Towards the end of the album you have a real bonkers stunner called ‘I got my tooth removed’ that veers from classic balladry to horn fuelled ska punk and back again which encapsulates all the inherent nonsense that make gecs so thrilling yet so infuriating. Lots of people will really hate this song. If you love 100 gecs though you can’t get enough and fortunately there’s still enough here to say 100 gecs are a positive alt-pop force to be celebrated.
