100 Gecs — 10,000 Gecs — Album Review

Joe Boothby
3 min readMar 23, 2023

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Alternative | Hyperpop | Electronic

Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music

That’s right; I’m finally hopping on-board the 100 gecs hype train.

The musical project of Missouri-based duo Laura Les and Dylan Brady certainly haven’t eluded me in any way. Upon the release of their 2019 debut album 1000 gecs, their hyperpop sound seemed to be everywhere.

It was clearly one of those new sounds that divided opinion, and only had a fraction of listeners warm up to it before most. The way I felt about this insanely fast-paced hyperpop feel that 100 gecs threw in our faces with their debut was to a point where I could still appreciate the innovation behind said sound, whilst also not being truly invested enough to listen to their music with a critical mindset.

All that changes today. In a year where I’m trying to set myself up with as many new experiences as possible, one of them was certainly to give the band’s sophomore studio album a chance, and for me to finally write a review of one of their projects.

As the title suggests, the main goal with 10,000 gecs, was to go bigger. And this certainly seemed apparent when I gave the teaser track “Hollywood Baby” a listen. By incorporating more heavy elements into their hyperpop framework, it proved to be a very invigorating mixture indeed.

That being said, I was impressed with how much I actually enjoyed the track, and that feeling only seemed to continue with the album as a whole. Despite this, though, it was really the tracks that incorporated the more rock-leaning elements that stood as the highlights of 10,000 gecs. The duo do provide a pretty good mixture of different sounds and moods. However, there were moments on the album that did fill a little too goofy for their own good.

In the best cases, though, this goofiness does allow the album to have a very fun aura to it. 10,000 gecs is certainly not the kind of album one should take too seriously (which, admittedly, does make it kind of an unruly one to review). But during the moments where the band are more sonically sound, I felt that this sense of fun worked in their favour far better.

In terms of narrative, the focus seems to lie on themes of self-destruction, and how their swift rise to popularity could potentially endorse those feelings (always take my comments on what a narrative on album is with a grain of salt, as it is mainly just my assumption). Either way though, this narrative goes pretty hand-in-hand with the albums sound, and furthermore the aesthetic of 100 gecs as a whole.

This really did seem like the kind of album where 100 gecs really branched their sound out to see what else they were capable of, which is definitely a good place for a sophomore record to be in. As a result of this, we get tracks such as “Billy Knows Jamie”, in which the band achieve both a sound very reminiscent of Limpbizkit, and the means to somehow break the sound barrier. Theres plenty more where that came from on 10,000 gecs, of course, but that track definitely stands as one of the best examples of the experimentation that is rife on this record.

In short, I was pleasantly surprised by just how enjoyable, fun, and silly (in a good way) this album was, whilst also being a versatile and engaging experience. Fair to say, if you ever need a good time to get into 100 gecs, there’s been no better time than now.

Favourite Tracks: Dumbest Girl Alive | Hollywood Baby | Doritos & Fritos

Least Favourite Track: Frog On The Floor

Dog Show Records | Atlantic Records

Final Score: 82%

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Joe Boothby
Joe Boothby

Written by Joe Boothby

My articles mainly revolve around music reviews and analysis. A bit like Anthony Fantano, but just a decade behind.

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