Just dance. Please don’t stop the music. The whole club was looking at her. Tonight’s going to be a good night. 15 years ago, pop music was concentrated on the elation of dancing, drinking and desire in the club. Now, Shygirl is part of a wave of artists bringing it back with her new EP, “Club Shy,” a delightfully crafted collection of songs that revel in their danceability.
Emerging from garage and hyperpop, the British artist known as Shygirl first earned acclaim for her boastful and sexual lyrics whisper-sung over sparse, abrasive beats. In her first full-length album in 2022, “Nymph,” Shygirl explored more vulnerable subject matter in fragmented, experimental songs. Her new EP “Club Shy,” named after a 2022 party series, is rooted in the themes and sensibilities of her previous work — the pleasure of being desired, the pleasure of desiring and the thrill of being slightly above it all.
That “Club Shy” is rooted in Shygirl’s sensibility is all the more impressive considering the EP features seven collaborators over six songs. Shygirl looks past corporate music festival-inflected techno hits (think: “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha) to the refreshing influence of European house music and early 2000s pop: a dance break over a jaunty instrumental line in “mr useless” with producer SG Lewis, an exciting dance vocal hook from singer Cosha and an apparent homage to “Telephone” with Lady Gaga and Beyoncé in “mute” with artist Lolo Zouai (“what was that? I can’t hear you” they breathe. “We be putting them boys on mute”).
Electro-pop, with its tight-knit structure and intensely fun synth lines, suits Shygirl well. Her subtle voice interweaves with the rest of the track, a change from her dedication to using her vocals as a contrasting element. She is coyly fun on songs such as “mr useless”: “Never needed you, never needed all those pieces of my heart,” she sings, both an affirmation of independence as well as a covert admittance of a desire to be loved. On “tell me,” with Boys Noize, her dedication to a partner is almost holy: “I’ll do anything.” Played on the dance floor in a dark club, as the track speeds up and slows down, you too would do anything to keep it going.
Despite its often successful exploration of new sounds, “Club Shy” isn’t a revelation for Shygirl: some of her ability to shock and titillate has softened into a slight boredom. The hook of twisting, sweet song “4eva,” (“I stay playing on your mind / you think of me forever”), lacks the playfulness of previous hits like “Nike”: “he told me Nike, just do it/ Hands on my waist and my body like he knew it.” “Mute” also falls flat: in “Telephone,” Lady Gaga and Beyoncé were uninterested in taking calls because they “left their head and their heart on the dance floor.” Over the gently bouncing track, Shygirl sounds disinterested, and despite a great verse from Lolo Zouai, the song lacks the passion of “Telephone.” However, the EP format allows what works to shine, unburdened by the perhaps weaker songs that could weigh down an album.
In the song “f@ke,” Shygirl rails against the idea of authenticity; she sings “who needs to be real? I want a fake bitch.” When you’re fake, you can create yourself. That is exactly what Shygirl has done, throughout her career — created herself. In “Club Shy,” she pushes further, finding a new playground for her singular sound. The result is a nimble collection of bite-size songs, a 15-minute soundtrack to a dance party for one or for many. The final track, “thicc,” is triumphant; Shygirl is at her most delicious playful, the frenetic beat moves you forwards and the shimmering synths crescendo ecstatically over Cosha’s vocals. “Club Shy” makes it clear: Electro-pop is back.
