Senior Dunce has by no means been afraid to embrace his awkwardness, however “Romantic LLM” is a special form of courageous. It’s a love track for the digital age, wrapped in shimmering 80s synths and dripping with melancholy, but one way or the other nonetheless danceable. The observe asks the form of query you didn’t know you wanted to listen to: what occurs when our most common want—love—is mediated by algorithms?
It’s an enormous query, however Dunce doesn’t overcomplicate it. As an alternative, he lets the music do the speaking. The shiny layers of synth create a dreamlike backdrop, whereas DORA’s velvet vocals reduce by with a heat that feels nearly startling in opposition to the digital gleam. She doesn’t simply sing on the observe—she humanises it.
The magic of “Romantic LLM” is that it feels nostalgic and futuristic on the identical time. There are shades of The Midnight’s neon sparkle, echoes of Her’s cinematic longing, even whispers of Blade Runner’s melancholy—but it surely by no means collapses into pastiche. It’s very a lot its personal factor, a Dunce creation by and thru.
For an artist who thrives on blurring irony and sincerity, this observe looks like an ideal storm. You possibly can chortle on the absurdity of falling for an AI, however you may as well really feel the sting of it—the inevitability, the disappointment, the unusual fantastic thing about it. Dunce’s persona because the everlasting outsider has by no means sounded extra relatable.
“Romantic LLM” isn’t simply one other single; it’s a second of readability for an artist unafraid to show awkwardness into an artwork type. You’ll dance, you’ll mirror, and also you may simply surprise what love will appear to be within the a long time to come back.
