by Chris Hatch

The Moldy Peaches, Jeffrey Lewis, and early-Pavement collide in a maelstrom of lo-fi indie pop, as AZITA attempts to raise awareness of the perils of a life spent online – ‘what used to fade away now you can never leave behind,’ she warns.

Production-wise, AZITA leaves in the scaffolding that props the song up. It’s a home-recorded affair that has echoes of the ramshackle alternative indie of the likes of Former Bullies – infectious, poppy, and rough around the edges. It’s simple, quasi-12-bar-blues structure edges from catchiness into monotony, before becoming hypnotic in a psych-rock kind of way. It’s in the second half of the track, though, when AZITA’s vocals start to free themselves up a little that things get a bit more passionate and earnest – a shift that gives the Drag City artist an interesting, unexpected lift.

Online Life is cut from the same cloth as Richard Linklater’s Slacker, as Daniel Johnston’s independent spirit, and as Kimya Dawson’s everyday lyricism – but while it remains in the wheelhouse of that late-90s, DIY, lo-fi scene, its subject matter delivers a thoroughly modern caveat over a juddering, bedroom-rock backing.

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