TV Girl is a name most teenagers have found themselves familiar with. The group is a phenomenon, seeming to disappear for a while, only to come back into the spotlight every few months. The band has resurfaced several times through online trends, their hit “Lovers Rock” has attained over one billion streams on Spotify. Followed by other well known tracks, “Not Allowed” and “Cigarettes out the Window.” I think the disappearing act is a part of TV Girl’s draw, they’re always coming back into relevancy randomly like a kind of weird pop whack-a-mole. I found their strange way of weaving in and out of the mainstream really appealing and I can’t name many other artists that are relevant in the way they are.
TV Girl is the brainchild of Brad Petering and Trung Ngo, a duo who formed the project in the early 2010’s. After Ngo’s departure from the band, Petering took over most of the production with their live drummer Jason Wyman and began working on new music. Nowadays, the band consists of Petering on vocals, Wyman on drums and Wyatt Harmon on keys. This change was huge for their sound. I personally adore Ngo’s work with TV Girl and encourage you to check out some of their older songs as a lot of that music is overlooked, and really good. However, that being said, I think the shift definitely benefit the group and I love the music now as well.
On Dec, 2. 2024, TV Girl released Fauxllennium, their fourth collaborative record. Going into this album I was so unbelievably excited, coming from this view, I was a little surprised by this album’s sound upon my first listen. Fauxllennium is sonically straying from their previous work, but isn’t entirely out of left field. Despite being jostled at first, I was more intrigued than turned away. Featuring George Clanton, a well-known electronic pop artist. The album is filled with breakbeats, sampled 60’s pop, soul, and hooky synth lines. When I first heard this record, I was really confused by the release date choice. The album is very summer themed, the opening lines “Popsicles and ice-cream, crashing into limousines” paint a summery scene that feels a little weird for an album that came out three weeks before Christmas. However, If you ignore the weird timing, it’s a genuinely really well produced and performed collection of electronic music. George Clanton’s reverb soaked vocals work surprisingly well with the trip-hop, dub, and 60’s pop sounding instrumentals. The sampling choices are also, as always, just shy of genius.
I am a huge fan of TV Girl’s previous record Grapes Upon the Vine and had high expectations for Fauxllennium. To put it bluntly, the bar was high, and for as high as it was I was utterly captivated.
Starting off strong, the opening track, and my favorite, “Summer 2000” is absolutely fantastic. It opens with a spacey sample of “Summer 2000” by X-Cetra, a song made by a group of 10-12 year old elementary school kids in the early 2000’s that was viral on TikTok around the time of the album’s release. I recognized the sample immediately and thought it was a super clever pick, as well as a great match for the song.
Going into the verse, the instrumental for the track is bouncy and danceable. A jangly piano riff and punchy snare punctuates Clantons airy vocals. This song is so catchy, like something you’d hear on a road trip and have stuck in your head for days. Near the middle of the track, there is an almost glitch-hop like break that lets the bassline breathe which is incredibly well done. Again, if I have not emphasized it enough, this song is SO catchy, but my only complaint would be how reverb soaked it is. This entire record is drowning in reverb and it makes some instruments sound muddy at times which takes away from the feel a little bit. Otherwise, I adored this track and was really into this album.
I think this piece is an amalgamation of modern TV Girl with a clear Clanton influence, which is exactly what I imagined when I went into this record. Clanton’s vocals work so incredibly well with the instrumentals. I cannot believe these two took this long to collaborate, I am so excited to see where TV Girl goes next.
