It’s been four years since Shelf Lives dropped their first “mini-album”, Yes Offence, which was a groovy slice of post-punk electro-bass backing up cutting, uncompromising lyrics that quite rightly saw the band become darlings of both the music press and the festival circuit. They followed things up in 2024 with the second EP No Idea which showed the band starting to pivot to a harsher sound, lyrics becoming increasingly distorted and angry, the guitar sound ever harsher, but it still felt like a Shelf Lives release and you could see the musical evolution in those two years.
Which brings us up to the band’s first proper album, HypernormaL and from the first opening seconds it becomes clear that a lot of things have changed, and not all of it is for the better. Opening track ‘2phoneS’ kicks things off innocuously enough at first, sporting the band’s by-now familiar drum machine backing track but the sound has evolved. It’s wider, fatter, sporting more layers and more complexity which is just what you would hope for in a full album release, a showcase of what the EPs and live performances have built to.
Then we hit the second track of the album and it all goes wrong. ’60K’ is an ugly track, and not in a remotely good way. Vocalist Sabrina Di Giulio’s whining, high-pitched refrain of “Bitches don’t own me” backed by an obnoxious, thudding bass beat and guitarist Jonny Hillyard’s snarling, barked rap stylings that set the tone for what’s to come. Leaving behind the indie influences of the first EP, listeners are presented instead with an album that’s more towards the techno-industrial end of things with track 7 ‘FrissoN’ (seriously, what’s with the random capital letters at the end of every song title?) being reminiscent of 90s goth/industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry but with less finesse and tact.
The band make a big thing about all the people who have collaborated and worked on this album. There’s Danio (Fred Again, Joy Anonymous) on ’60K’, Pat Alvarez (Blessed Madonna, Joy Crookes) and Lola Sam (Hot Wax) playing bass on ‘like heR’ and the album itself was mixed by Matteo Buccomino (Joy Anonymous, EFÉ) at the legendary Abbey Road Studios but the final release is something that’s unpleasant to listen to, filled with obnoxious lyrics and grating sounds. The band might claim that the album is their attempt at “trying to feel real again” but their version of reality is a decidedly unpleasant place to spend any amount of time. However that’s not the biggest sin the album commits.
HypernormaL is just boring. Boring, and almost indistinguishable from a hundred other bands with this sort of electronic/bass-heavy sound. You can turn on any radio station and hear bands that sound just like this and that’s just sad. People who started following this band because they liked Yes, Offence are likely to find this a bitter pill to swallow and while the band are adamant that they enjoy switching their sounds and keeping their fans guessing about what’s coming next, this is likely to be a step too far for many of them. You could even say that Shelf Lives have passed their best before date.