Oh, how we’ve missed you, 100 gecs. If you’ve been present in the online sphere since the duo, made up of Laura Les and Dylan Brady, released their first single, you’ve probably had at least one conversation with friends about whether the pair’s music is genuinely good or just a grating, mildly funny joke. Regardless, the group’s latest outing “10,000 gecs” proves that they’re here to stay, retaining the skilled production and irreverent self-awareness that made their debut so captivating while proving to have even more tricks up their sleeve.
Upon first glance, it might be easy to mistake the album for an EP: clocking in at 27 minutes, “10,000 gecs” is only four minutes longer than their 2019 outing “1,000 gecs” and a whole 24 minutes shorter than their sprawling remix album “1,000 gecs & The Tree of Clues,” released in 2020. But the shorter runtime is probably for the best: anything longer and you might start to feel overwhelmed, as the duo manages to pack more production details into one song than some artists do in entire albums.
This brevity is reflected within the songs as well. Coming in at only 10 tracks, each song hovers around one minute and fifty seconds to three minutes in terms of length. Not only that, but a number of tracks feature a beat switch or two, making each segment of the song even shorter. However, there is never a moment when you feel that a song is too short or a beat switch is too abrupt; 100 gecs understand when a welcome is overstayed and do a fantastic job at preventing that from happening.
This mindset carries over into the sound of the album. Instead of repeating what worked with “1,000 gecs,” the pair opt to deviate into new territory with nearly every song: “Billy Knows Jamie” could easily pass as a Limp Bizkit deep cut, “I Got My Tooth Removed” proves once again that ska will never die and “Frog On The Floor” is, well, just sort of dumb — but, man, if it isn’t catchy.
Generally, the album’s sound almost has more in common with the likes of Blink-182 or Green Day than Charli XCX or Dorian Electra. It’s nearly Y2K in sound form: the elements of early 2000s sound with enough creativity and irony to make it work, mixed in with more modern production techniques.
There are still tracks here that feel like familiar territory. Songs like “757” and “mememe” could fit quite nicely into the tracklist of their debut, but only in the most abstract sense: the sound is generally the same, but 100 gecs demonstrates a certain maturity and precision on this latest outing that wasn’t present on their debut. It’s loud, distorted and chaotic, but it’s equally as clean, polished and pristine.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper 100 gecs project if you weren’t constantly questioning whether they’re joking or not. “Are the only vocals in ‘One Million Dollars’ really just a computer-generated voice saying ‘one million dollars’ for two minutes?” Yes. Is it also packed with creative production choices, a catchy beat and a subtle condemnation of consumer culture? Yes.
The album isn’t without its shortcomings, however small and nitpicky they may be. The track “The Most Wanted Person In The United States” eventually finds its groove, but Brady’s vocals in the first and third legs of the song come off more as a bad Lil Peep impression than anything else, hindering the song slightly. The song “Doritos & Fritos” is probably the best on the album, but was also released all the way back in April 2022 as the lead single. The song is still fantastic, but it's a shame the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to it (even if only marginally).
If you’re still firmly in the anti-100 gecs camp, this album probably won’t change your mind: it’s still packed to the brim with all the subtle ironies and unsubtle production that made the duo so controversial to begin with. For those of us gecs, though, it’s a thoroughly catchy, funny and altogether exciting listen — even if mildly disappointing.
John Scott is the editor-in-chief at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JohnSnott
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