Nearly 10 years ago, Las Vegas-born Shamir was a left-field club-pop sensation signed to UK label XL. Citing musical differences, Shamir soon left for a prolific DIY career making raw, lo-fi guitar music. His last – eighth – album, Heterosexuality (2022), was particularly notable, doubling down on heavier, quasi-industrial sounds. Taking the rebellious icon of Baphomet as a totem, this non-binary, he-pronoun, queer Black person took eloquent aim at oppressors everywhere.
For his ninth LP, Shamir has signed to Kill Rock Stars, home to riot grrrl in the 90s. A little disappointingly, it also marks a return to common-or-garden indie rock. Some tracks convey Shamir’s insights better than others. Oversized Sweater is a deceptively easy-going banger about lost love and the jumper Shamir knitted as part of his 2020 recovery, quitting smoking and marijuana after a spell in psychiatric care. But Our Song, also about heartbreak, treads water musically.
Homo Anxietatem is at its best when it throws the genre doors wide. Obsession is a new wave bop written in 2016 that considers Shamir’s fraught relationship with success, while Calloused, a folk cut, is both weary and crisp. The Devil Said The Blues Is All I’ll Know makes for a haunting closer, Shamir’s gender-agnostic voice quavering over blues vamps.