ALBUMS // Illuminati Hotties – Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For
Post by Tommy
Editor’s note: You may have noticed that this is our second post about this Illuminati Hotties album. We don’t usually do this, but after my (Misha) initial rather off-the-cuff write up, Tommy wanted to do a deeper dive into the album’s timely themes and message. So now we give you, as a special treat, our Free I.H. post #2!
“everyone likes filling the timeline,” Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin chirps on “bedtime//content,” a standout from the band’s newest collection Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For. “everyone likes keeping the best shots for the / content”
Pivoting away from the slightly more straightforward indie-emo sound of its predecessor Kiss Yr Frenemies, released in 2018 on Tiny Engines, Free I.H. is dirtier, rough-sawn and looser – and notably, part of a deal to divest from the once zeitgeist-defining indie emo record label following accusations of financial impropriety and “manipulative” signing practices as a number of artists fight to regain control of their masters from the label (see also: Long Neck’s wonderful World’s Strongest Dog, released independently in March after a successful crowdfunded bid to buy it back from the label).
A bid for autarchy, Illuminati Hotties’ latest is a raucous statement of independence peppered with references to the label troubles. It’s also frequently concerned with lowering its own stakes. The band’s primary member Sarah Tudzin has described Free I.H…. not as an album but rather a “mixtape” (specifically Not The One You’re Looking For) and clarified to Stereogum that she sees that distinction as being the one between a “fully realized masterwork” and a collection of “things that are not a full blown track that could end up on an LP, but are pretty cool and you want to show people.” With all but two tracks clocking in under 2 minutes (and to be fair, a full minute of the one outlier is just oscillating feedback) the album burns brightly and quickly with spontaneous energy and curiosity.
Ironically, the immediacy and ferocious creativity of that experiment is also what unifies the album so cohesively around its concept, making it one of the most singular and electrifying punk records to come out of the emo-adjacent scene in a long time. Of course it’s most punk in that it’s mostly not – it also dabbles in 60s pop (“frequent letdown”), island rhythms (“melatonezone”), post rock textures (“free dumb”) and even grinding, squelching electronic sounds in “free4all.” Its varied time signatures are brilliant and asymmetrical and Tudzin’s vocals hop freely between singing, cheering, yelping, and Tom Delonge-isms somewhere in between (“WATTBL”). Hooks abound but almost accidentally, winking on and off like tiny lightbulbs through the noise.
Despite brushing off any pretense of forethought, FREE I.H. is still remarkably unified in form and function, a collection of supposedly half-baked tracks whose lyrics deal directly with the pressures of constant creativity and output that are increasingly leveled at musicians by the people who profit off their work sans the emotional and creative stakes. “look at the sheeples in the pretty pasture while the / dutiful shepherd drives ‘em harder and faster,” she yells on “free ppls,” “stock boss is overcome with laughter… he eats for / free.” Songwriters, whose work is largely expressive and judged on the merits of its authenticity, put forth enormous effort which rarely translates to its expectation (“e-motivational deadline”) or equivalence in financial value. “free dumb” turns that into the album’s most direct indictment- “there was no love lost / until you deemed that I was non-essential / I guess it’s my fault / for being good at something sentimental”
Rather than finger-pointing at consumers or casting blanket blame on the music industry, the band focuses their indignation ideologically at the members of the industry and record labels that use profit models to amplify pressure on the artists whose creative work they control. “you’re lucky that you spotted such good songs or else / you’d have to learn how to get good at yr job,” Tudzin mocks on “superiority complex (big noise),” and points to the way that playlist curators and label A&R practices exploit idealism by encouraging emerging bands to participate in (and therefore reinforce) this model: “ain’t it easy when yr eating from the fists of all the young guns / who hardly ever thought they could be”.
In an album as argumentative and confrontational as this one, the most interesting quality is in its own self contradiction. While rallying against pressures of content creation and expectations of productivity, Free I.H. is itself a self-consciously generated and so-framed collection of extra (non-album) content made to satisfy a product expectation. “Free I.H.” is a double entendre – it’s a command to free the band from their record deal, but it’s also a description of the product, a “freebie” album for the label in order to free a future, more considered record from their control.
Incidentally, it’s extremely good- that’s a testament to the major talent and creative energy Tudzin and her band bring to the table, as well as the virtue in laying the pressure off one’s creative process. But it also stands as a bid by the band to take back the means of defining the terms in which their music is valued, and their right to consider the cost by which it’s created. If this is “Free I.H.” I’m eager to hear what they think we should get at the paid tier.
Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For is available now at the artist’s bandcamp.