“I stay playing on your mind…”
Fuck the flowers, screw the chocolate: get me to a dance floor this Valentine’s Day.
Shygirl‘s long awaited Club Shy EP arrives just in time for the lovey-dovey holiday on Friday (February 9), and to absolutely no one’s surprise, it’s the start-to-finish essential club companion of 2024 we all knew it would be.
The 30-year-old English superstar – born Blane Muise, not to be confused with MuuMuse – has been percolating within the underground electronic scene and rising to the forefront for some time now, especially since the release of her acclaimed 2022 debut Nymph, followed by last year’s deluxe follow-up, Nymph_o.
Over the past few months, she’s slowly, steadily teased out tracks from her latest project Club Shy, described as an extension of Shygirl’s eponymous IRL club experience: from the Sega Bodega and Karma Kid co-produced, Cosha-assisted “Thicc” in November, to the plastic-fantastic, fake bitch anthem “f@k€” with Kingdom in December, to dreamy-eyed banger “tell me” with Boys Noize in January.
Now, we’ve got the rest of the tracks off of the EP to get the full experience, and there’s certainly no filler to be found on the ’90s and ’00s-club inspired, no-skips set.
There’s talent pouring out from every corner of the EP, including the Kingdom-produced opening track “4eva” featuring the incredible Empress Of. Shygirl casts her best love spell over and over (“You think of me forever, forever“) across a hot, hypnotic ’90s-style four-to-the-floor pulse, as the two later tag-team on thirsty bilingual verses: “Give mе that good, good D today,” Shy purrs. “Dame de lo bueno hasta el amanecer, Empress Of lusts. Who could possibly resist?
If you’re going through it this Valentine’s Day however, you’re not alone: despite being quite the seductress, Shygirl still knows her self-worth. She (rightfully) talks herself up, gets hers, and leaves anyone wasting her time behind throughout Club Shy. (And with so many talented musician friends by her side, who needs a man anyway?)
Shy’s got some incredible sonic middle fingers for the dance floor on Club Shy, including the vaguely trance-like SG Lewis-produced standout “mr useless,” in which she happily tells off a pesky time-waster, crooning across a bouncy synth that vaguely recalls Hot Butter‘s classic “Popcorn.”
“Never needed you, never needed Mr. Useless from the start,” Shy proclaims in one of the most immediately catchy moments.
And in case the message wasn’t loud and clear enough, there’s also the Oscar Scheller (PinkPantheress, Brooke Candy) and Big Ever co-produced “mute” with Lolo Zouaï, a severely cunty telephonic turmoil thumper in the tradition of Lady Gaga and Beyonce‘s “Telephone.” Don’t you dare let that man ruin your night! Put that phone on Do Not Disturb, shove it in your pocket and dance.
“He’d be on me if I let him, but I got him in my pocket, baby,” Lolo coos under the strobe lights. Damn right.
Clocking in at a criminally short just-over-15-minutes (extended mixes and remixes are a must, please), the Club Shy EP is nonetheless a perfect, prepackaged DJ mini-set. It’s packed to the brim with thick (thicc) beats, come-hither crooning and plenty of nostalgia-inducing dance floor euphoria, with subtle nods aplenty to the pioneers who came before while still propelling today’s electronic scene into the future.
Club Shy is available on vinyl right here.
Check out the MuuTunes Spotify playlist. You can also subscribe on Apple Music.
Photo credit: Mel Bles
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