The multi-talented creative Empty Pinata brings his various skills together for recent single ‘TikTok Girl’. As a former photographer and music-video director (as well as artist developer), it’s fitting that the Brooklyn-based artist has turned his attention to the para-social lens of TikTok that has entered our lives like a bullet train. As such, this track is a woozy narrative of infatuation and escapism into a digital world where intimacy has become a commodity.
At two minutes long, ‘TikTok Girl’ is just the right length to keep our ever-dwindling attention span before that desire to scroll kicks in again. From the start, Empty Pinata dives into a hazy, psychedelic and lofi world with layers of soft-pop melodies, breathy vocals and laidback percussion. Wrapped up in a fuzzed-out production, this track delivers a sweet and simple formula that conveys a rose-tinted screen.
It’s that dreamy atmosphere where Empty Pinata‘s depiction of blurred emotional space where affection and detachment coexist comes into focus. The protagonist comes into view, a girl glued to her phone and obsessed with a pixellated fantasy, while reality with a side-lined admirer has been shut off. It brings to question just how many experiences we might be missing out on because we’re relying on our phones with those shiny apps for our daily dopamine hit.
The emotional potency and philosophical questioning behind ‘TikTok Girl’ sneaks up on you slowly. It’s a quiet ache that gradually rises up through the left-field indie-pop textures. A concise introduction to the songwriting prowess of Empty Pinata.
You can listen to ‘TikTok Girl’ in our Shades of Pop playlist.
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