SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ALEXEI SHISHKIN – GOOD TIMES

ALEXEI SHISHKIN
GOOD TIMES
RUE DEFENSE

Artists dabbling with all the variants of lo-fi/bedroom pop and all closely connected musical forms, seem to be having a sort of a hard time these days for no apparent reason, as quite a few of them are still making music that deserves closer attention which they don’t seem to be getting.

One such artist is Alexei Shishkin, a musician/filmmaker who goes on describing himself as “DIY nobody of the internet void.” That description might have something to do with the fact that he is just releasing Good Times, his 11th studio album (he released three in 2024 only, along with a feature documentary), and he still hasn’t received the recognition for his very melodic, tongue-in-cheek music that is all over this album too.

Maybe Shishkin’s version of lo-fi is not so lo-fi, or his bedroom pop too bedroom fit, as it can include everything from Americana to jazz, often in a single track. Maybe it is just too sophisticated and too varied to be strictly stuck within a genre, but then, these days, even the masters of lo-fi like Guided by Voices are having a hard time. Hopefully, that will not discourage Shishkin to come up with more albums like this one.

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