Over the last few years, the Las Vegas-born musician Shamir Bailey has gone through an interesting and unpredictable evolution — first breaking through with the clubby pop music of his 2015 debut Ratchet before breaking completely with that sound. Since then, he’s independently released a whole lot of lo-fi indie-pop music, including this year’s album Cataclysm. Last week, Shamir released “Something That’s Worth My Praises,” a single that was only available for 24 hours. Today, he’s got a sharp and immediate new banger.
Shamir is working on a new album that he’s intending to release later this year, and he tells Rolling Stone that it’ll be his “most commercial-sounding” music since Ratchet. “On My Own,” his newest single, doesn’t quite sound commercial in any conventional way, and it’s still built around Shamir’s distinctive and oblique melodic sensibilities. But it’s big and bright and beat-driven, and it reminds me of the late-’90s moment when clubby dance-pop crossed over with festival-ready alt-rock. (This is a good thing. Anything that reminds me of Republica’s “Ready To Go” is a good thing.) The main attraction is still Shamir’s voice, a massive and expressive instrument.
Shamir directed his vivid, glamorous “On My Own” video, shooting it in quarantine in his house. (He also edited it and did the makeup and styling. The makeup and styling are impressive as hell.”) Talking to Rolling Stone, he says, “I wrote ‘On My Own’ last summer after a breakup as a way to remind myself that while it sucked to lose someone I was getting used to, at least I’m an introvert. But considering the pandemic, it’s also morphed into an accidental quarantine anthem, especially for the people who live alone like me.” Check out the video below.
We don’t yet know the details on Shamir’s next album, but he recorded it with Thin Lips member and Kississippi producer Kyle Pulley, and it’s apparently coming this fall.
