It must have been strange to constantly hear yourself introducing yourself. “On The Regular,” the breakout single from Shamir’s debut album Ratchet — released 10 years ago today — opened with the 20-year-old Vegas countertenor rattling off a list of superlatives about himself over DFA cowbells and Lone-flavored chords, and it instantly bludgeoned the world over the head with the knowledge that this is the new thing you like! It’s not a bad song by any means, but it’s the kind of thing that can get out of control a little easily. You imagine Perfect Blue-style nightmares where the singer’s own reduplicating face taunts him in the dead of night: “Hi hi, honey honey, hi hi!” If the ubiquitous Spotify ad wore on you, imagine how the person who soundtracked it must have felt, continuing to tell everyone day to day that this was “me on the regular” as if stuck in the disco version of Groundhog Day.
