Hether’s New Album “play it pretty”
During the Haunted Mansion ride at DisneyWorld, there’s a man with a deep and slightly unsettling voice who narrates the ride. He tells you to buckle your seatbelts, stay in the “doom buggy,” etc. Hether’s newest album, “play it pretty,” begins in much the same way. The first track, entitled “the living eye,” features a deep-voiced man who beckons the listener to fall head-first into the album, to “come walk into the living eye” while other-wordly music, screams, and whispers reverberate in the background. In fact, the rest of the album continues much like the Haunted Mansion ride as well — “play it pretty” is a ride that transports the listener into a whole new supernatural world.
Hether is the alias of singer-songwriter Paul Castelluzo, the former bass player for alternative/indie artist Dominic Fike. He began creating music under the name Hether in 2019 with the single “When U Loved Me,” which features Castelluzo’s pitched-up vocals layered on top of a dreamy and reverbating musical accompaniment. This sound has become the defining feature of Hether’s discography, inspiring images of lost love and quiet pining. There’s a fuzzy quality that coats all of his music, as if it is emanating from a clip-on guitar speaker. The soundscape of “play it pretty” is still reminiscent of Hether’s earlier work and falls into the bedroom pop and garage rock categories – yet it takes a profound departure in terms of its experimentation with sound and songwriting.
“play it pretty” combines Hether’s typical crooning over problems in love with the supernatural. It’s a marriage between the indie-boy aesthetic and a horror movie, a union that probably only Hether could pull off. The album is reminiscent of Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox’s relationship, such as with the second track “i won’t kill you.” The otherwordly vibrations of a theremin run throughout the whole song, setting an otherworldly tone. The lyrics are immediately disconcerting, with the first verse going: “Take off my head / Put it in your bag / Rip off my fingers and all of my toes / Suck out my blood / Kiss my neck / Rip off my ears and burn them instead.” Is it romantic or creepy in its depiction of all-encompassing infatuation? Maybe both. Hether combines romance with body horror until they are indistinguishable from each other, blurring the line between the heart palpitations caused by love and those caused by terror.
Hether has indicated an interest in the intersection between love and the macabre in an interview for Born Loser before, stating that if he were able to play a show at a fictional location, he would “play Black Sabbath covers at the castle in Edward Scissorhands for all those moms, just ripping Tony Iommi licks while Edward cuts my hair.” I don’t doubt Hether’s ability to actually create this scene, especially his Tony Iommi lick-ripping skills given the fact that he has been playing guitar since the age of six. In high school, he got into “jazz and old time blues stuff,” an influence that can still be heard in “play it pretty.” The focus single of the album, “dirty claws,” features a traditional blues scale combined with elements of rock, like a crunchy guitar tone. Hether shreds while he sings, “V-A-M-P-I-R-E / My mama told me not to fall in love with the vampire in her blood / I’m just a little too stupid / You can hold me tight / It’s my neck you bite / but the only thing wrong, was your dirty claws.”
The final track, “Icsd,” provides a chaotic yet fitting ending to the album. It would seamlessly blend into the Beetlejuice soundtrack with its jaunty melody and Hether’s hoarse voice (which is a near perfect imitation of the Michael Keaton character). There is no air of finality, however; actually, quite the opposite. The song ends abruptly, like it should transition into another track but it doesn’t. Instead, it seems to lead right back to the beginning of the album. You could listen to “play it pretty” on loop forever, and maybe that’s the genius of it; Hether carved out his own corner of the universe where the listener can be completely immersed in the storytelling of his music.
Is this album a commentary on how people prey on each other in relationships? Is it an honest declaration of how awful the mustachioed boys of Brooklyn are? Is it an exploration of Hether’s supernatural fantasies? Maybe all of the above, maybe none — you decide. “play it pretty” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else. You can also find tickets here to see Hether perform live alongside Remi Wolf this upcoming fall in a city near you.