Over the years, Shamir has moved from the clubby pop music of 2015’s Ratchet to a more tangled and insular form of DIY indie-pop. This fall, Shamir will release a new self-titled album that seems to move into a whole new aesthetic phase — not clubby, not DIY indie, but bright and expressive and powerful. Shamir has recently dropped a couple of singles: “On My Own,” which announces the new direction of the album, and “Wedding Day,” which was only on Bandcamp for a brief spell. Today, he’s got a new one, and it’s a banger.
“I Wonder” is a grand and powerful rock song, built on ringing guitars and digital percussion. It makes full use of Shamir’s remarkable voice, which climbs and swoops and bends all over the track. Shamir’s lyrics are gnostic, poetic stuff: “Soon I’ll be the neon shining moon/ And I’ll break you up just like the stars/ I’ll be the earth with the disease/ And you the human inside of me.” Shamir played guitar and bass on the song, and the Philadelphia producer Matty Beats did the drum programming. In the self-directed video, we see one real Shamir singing with two rear-projected Shamirs.
In a press release, Shamir says, “The song is about the feeling of love taking over your heart, even when you don’t want it to. It also alludes to climate change and how humans (‘love’) can be the most toxic thing to the planet (‘the heart’), but also the only thing that can fix it.” Check out the video below.
The self-released Shamir is out 10/2. You can get “I Wonder” at Bandcamp right now.