The LA queer pop duo, Gene Fukui and Matt Young of TWINKIDS, both songwriters and producers, anticipate their sophomore EP Lizard House to come out November 22nd. To hold us off until then, and to latch onto the receding summer-season they deliver their first release of 2019, the perfect end-of-summer song – “Eighteen.”
Their songs, taking inspiration from ’70s and ’80s J-Pop, tackle the anxieties of being young and queer. In theme, their new track “Eighteen” speaks to the lasting remnants of young romance and love. Speaking about writing the track, Gene laments, “Even something you once felt like you were going to devote your entire life to feels really distant, but it still left a hole in your heart.” Listening to the track you feel the pull of lost love simmering beneath the textured synths.
Eighteen makes me feel like I’m in a neon-dream. The electric undertones and the smooth, soft, sad voices of the boys croon me to a pop-despair. While the verses shimmer over the detuned synths, the track bubbles up to the chorus with the slow, cool bridge that repeats, “How can you love me and your future too,” but it still did not prepare me for the drop into the chorus that threw me into a mood of sweet sadness.
Dancing to the chorus, I feel like I’m watching a teen romance crumble of under the lights of a summer carnival… essentially the soundtrack to a young Timothée Chalamet film. By the time the boys sing, “Remember, eighteen? The promise we could not keep?” I already feel the weight of their message but am grateful to be distracted by the electric ethereal synths that continue to echo and pulse behind the lyrics. The mid-tempo of the track lets the lyrics soar and resonate to the listener.
The rise and fall of the track heightens the feeling of an exciting nostalgia and I forget to listen to the words of the bridge before an auto-toned voice comes in crying when you’re eighteen. This song makes me feel all of the love and excitement of something once new and fresh coming to an end. It makes me feel like drowning my thoughts in the last 40 seconds of the track while I dance away a heartbreak. This track, reminiscent of something old, reborn into a heartbreak-dance-jam.
While their 2017 EP Boys Love included the single “Overdressed,” which has accumulated over 5 million Spotify streams and counting their upcoming sophomore EP will surely not disappoint.
