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2023 saw the release of another album from an artist that I’d been wanting to hear more from. Hyper-pop duo 100 gecs released their second studio album last year, long after the hyper-pop trend from 2018/2019 had died down. I was never the biggest hyper-pop fan, but I appreciated some of the duo’s work prior to the release of 10,000 gecs, and though I appreciated the abrasive sound and explicit personality in some of their more well-known singles, something about their previous 2019 debut studio album, 1000 gecs, just didn’t click for me. A lot of it was due to the lack of variation and experimentation which you would expect from a group like 100 gecs, as though the singles money machine and hand crushed by a mallet really caught my attention, the rest of the album seemed to just be lesser reproductions of the same song.

So, when I heard that the duo had released another album, I went into it with certain expectations and left pretty satisfied. In many ways, 10,000 gecs is an improvement or some sort of refinement of their previous sound with more of a punk-rock edge. The care and dedication that went into this album is audible, and it really felt like the duo was a lot more willing to experiment rather than playing to the expected or predictable hyper-pop sounds from their previous musical ventures.

10,000 gecs continues to radiate manic energy through the duo’s signature abrasiveness and unserious lines, but with more structure and variation. Perhaps one of the biggest improvements this album makes on its predecessor is with its variation, as you get tracks like Frog On The Floor where Laura Les sings about a frog that parties, to more traditional hyper-pop tracks like Hollywood Baby, to glitchy and metallic tracks like Billy Knows Jamie, which is about a homicidal maniac. It’s clear that the duo has taken the time between albums to really hone their production skills, which is much appreciated.

Despite it’s experimentation, 10,000 gecs never loses its central silliness and willingness to not take itself too seriously. Heavily emblematic of the chronically online time that we are currently in, 10,000 gecs is representative of the humor and style of the 20s, and I hope their music comes up 300 years later when historians are trying to understand what the internet age was like.

Best Track(s): “Dumbest Girl Alive”, “Frog on the Floor”, “Hollywood Baby”, “Billy Knows Jamie”

Rating: 8.0/10