Shygirl and Tinashe Bring Us To Heaven With This Y2K Lullaby
Futuristic cell phones and heavenly vocals by liquified it girls of the experimental scene: the borders between reality and CGI began to fade last Wednesday when Shygirl released the music video for “Heaven”, the first project off of her deluxe album, “Nymph_o”. The video features the multifaceted Tinashe, and was the subject of a contorted mise-en-scene by Actual Objects—an LA-based creative studio—famous for frequently working with the artists’ contemporaries: Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek, Sega Bodega, and more.
The video opens with a view of Tinashe getting stood up before getting dumped over text via her ultramodern handphone. The camera then focuses on a bright blue tear that she sheds; zooming in and transitioning to a vivid world of heavenly bliss. Inside the teardrop, we then see a snapshot of the artist’s surreal tropical paradise where both Shygirl and Tinashe appear as liquified, gauzy bodies, dancing to the beat of the poetic anthem.
Screenshots from the Video
“Boy, you’re heaven / Won’t you let me in? / Please ignore all the things I did / If loving you is a sin / I just wanna make it up to you”
The video CGI for “Heaven” was purportedly influenced by TLC’s smash single “Waterfalls” from 1994, six years before the actual Y2K invasion. At the end of the video, a liquified version of TLC are seen dancing behind an actual waterfall, setting the tone for the group’s iconography for years to come.
“I just wanna / Make it up to you / Never leave your side / Please ignore all the things I did / I'm here for more than the ride”
The music video itself also intercuts scenes of liquified Shygirl and Tinashe as they dance on top of an ocean with still water life surrounding them – serving as a reference from one gleaming talent to another. Instead of falling under the Y2K umbrella prevalent in today’s Internet culture, it was more of a tribute to Frutiger Aero: one of the most popular aesthetics on the cusp of the Internet. The said aesthetic provided today’s delusional girls with their formative digital experiences, broadly covering glossy, jelly-like, glowing interfaces that mimicked real-world physical qualities.
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The same was heavily applied in “Heaven” as it took huge strides into an aquatic world of pleading sensuality through a glossy gleam of vibrant blues. The lyrics follow a narrative wherein Shygirl likens her potential love interest to heaven: refusing to let her inside of his gates, making her repent; obsessing over him, and him alone. The song’s pulse lies within Tinashe’s breathy octaves, paired with Shygirl’s own dreamy yet seductive vocals as they intertwine with lullaby-like synths. Waxing gentle yet desperate romance, together, they breathe a new life onto the “Heaven” remix.
With the nostalgic futurism featured in “Heaven”, it would ultimately be reductive to categorize born Blane Miuse as merely a hyperpop artist. The UK-based 29-year-old is also a DJ, a lyricist, and an experimental producer rooting from plenty of feats: UK garage, hip-hop, grime, and deconstructed club. Sonically, she has mastered the art of the in-between: balancing light and dark sounds, futuristic yet current.
Nina C. is a 21-year-old law school dropout slash fashion blogger who writes under the pseudonym, nextlevelsolegit. She enjoys architecture, interior design, and Miuccia Prada.
Read her previous column It’s Like a Womb”: Exploring Chloë Sevigny’s East Village Apartment here