There are very few things as immediately gratifying as the 3am New York Slice. Hot and greasy, served up on a semi-translucent paper plate and folded to perfection, it’s the ideal way to cap off an evening of intentional misbehaving. Brooklyn’s Shybaby delivers “Pizza,” a rowdy new track that channels that same concept of vulgar satisfaction into a brilliant metaphor on female empowerment.
“Pizza” is an avalanche of maximum speed riffs and manic percussion haphazardly glued together with a bassline so filthy it makes a truckstop restroom look clean enough to perform surgery in. The relentless sonic blitzkrieg so completely embodies the runaway potential of a chemically augmented weekend bender that when the rapid-fire, almost spoken word verses suddenly give way to larynx shredding hooks the unhinged howls seem relatively melodious amidst the din.
Skillfully shot among the golden hour rooftops and slicked black alleys of Brooklyn, director Molly Mary O’Brien crafts a visual dynamic that casts Shybaby frontwoman Grace Eire as two contrasting parts of a singular persona. At one moment elevated and awash in sunlight, the next clad in black stalking street level at night illuminated only by flashbulbs and with striking camerawork to match, “Pizza” morphs into a thorough depiction of the self both authentic and curated.
Shybaby’s writing is notable for being bluntly confessional, emotional expulsions rendered in scrawling shorthand with heaving physicality. Unabashedly graphic the absence of poetic subtlety ensures that each syllable hits like a ten-ton hammer with an exhilarating sense of self awareness that makes the final catharsis so remarkably liberating. The genius of “Pizza” lies in how Shybaby is able to so expertly leverage that primal expression to effectively communicate a complex theme in a manner that leaves little to the imagination, but is still possessed of sufficient nuance to warrant intellectual consideration.
Drawing a bold comparison between a cheap, drunken slice of pizza and a cheap, drunken rendezvous sets “Pizza” up as a sort of feminist anthem, flipping the power dynamic of free love away from the greasy fingers of junkfood boys and into the hands of women fully empowered to pursue satisfaction on their own terms. A freedom from obligation, real or implied, that opens the doors to personal honesty and an authenticity of self that refuses to stay in and wait around for Charlie to get back from Miami. “Pizza” is emblematic of a reassessment of one’s personal value to something much greater than a dollar slice, so matter how famously delicious it may be.
“Pizza” is streaming now on Spotify. Follow Shybaby on Instagram and catch them live on 10/17 at Our Wicked Lady.
