In KYTLY’s “Modern Life,” relationships are plastic, feelings are synthetic, and fun is like doing whippets – euphoric, but fast fleeting. The rock-meets-lo fi artist’s new single – available now – is a scathing yet also somehow gentle critique of, well, modern life.
There’s an early-2000s ‘height of indie’ vibe to the song, conjuring bands like Chicks On Speed and the bedroom-made sensibilities of Le Tigre. But it’s also wholly current.
“Modern Life is a song of the times,” KYTLY points out. “Disposable relationships. Replaceable feelings. Sensationally driven. Dopamine-rushing lifestyles. It’s a self-effacing anthem for modern dating and the disingenuous process of becoming ‘fast friends.’”
There’s also the sense that this is universal, and it’s a phenomenon that can’t exactly be tied to one country or culture:
Here he goes again fast friends
He’s got a girl in Italy
He’s got a girl in Japan
She models on the runway
He plays drums in a rock band
Here he goes again fast friends
The song rolls along with a careening punk-rock lean, but its lo-fi recording aesthetic and sweet vocals imbue it with an element of avant-garde, and sadness and regret. Meaning, it hardly does anything to glamourize the “fast friends” mindset.
The road of life is full of twists and turns. It’s easy to get lost. Go off course. Find yourself somewhere unintended. But if your sense of direction is keen and you keep your eyes on the horizon, you’ll get back on track eventually.
That’s where KYTLY finds herself these days. More than a decade after debuting with the acclaimed but short-lived indie-rock outfit The Caraways – and following years of navigating the curves, hills and valleys of existence – the bewitching vocalist and multimedia talent returned in 2022 with her long-overdue (and tellingly named) album Detours and Exits. She’s continued to record, hence her latest single “Modern Life.”
