Opposite Sex – “Supermarket”
New Zealand trio Opposite Sex make wry, candid punk rock wrapped in an unorthodox encasing like a lollipop with a brussels sprout center. Though that probably doesn’t sound appetizing in taste, sonically it creates a wonderfully unresolved incongruity that keeps the ear constantly engaged. The Kiwi outfit is set to drop their sophomore full-length, Hamlet, later this summer. An early taste of the album is the opener “Supermarket,” a paragon of the their sensibilities.
The song begins as a simple trip to the supermarket just to “walk around and stare at all the things I’d like to eat.” But soon it transforms into a scathing commentary on the unreal standards we uphold for women’s youth and beauty and how we often trade in our unique individual aspects and commodify them until they aren’t special. The driving guitar riff gradually gets crunchier like eating pebbles as Lucy Hunter sings “Do you like my face?/ It’s called docile by L’Oreal/ I like it because it covers up the way I actually look…Oh make me cute, make me sweet/ Make me fragile and petite/ So I can be pushed around by some dickhead/ Who likes rugby, beer, and meat.” Then things get delightfully weird with classical piano, found sounds, and inventive interjections colliding and bouncing off of each other before an abrupt end. Man is this song vicious in the most subtle way. Listen.
Hamlet is out 8/12 via Dull Tools. Pre-order it here.