Gelli Haha
Switcheroo
INNOVATIVE LEISURE
A conceptual album that pops like fresh bubblegum on a hot summer day, Gelli Haha’s debut Switcheroo is posed and styled by producer Sean Guerin of De Lux to invoke a multi-sensory dance-pop circus. This album feels like the moment when, after a month of looking forward to a weekend poolside getaway, you find yourself in a shared suite at one of those Madonna-themed hotels where the punch was evidently spiked with acid. That bubbly feeling rising inside of you is Switcheroo doing its magic.
Gelli Haha’s song narratives impose like irreverently cartoonish wallpaper across the halls of dance-pop history—neon, acid-tinged nonsense—and it’s producer Guerin who keeps the songwriter in check with bass-thumping tracks perfect for summer. Coated in thick, syrupy vocals, this album mercilessly traps you in its rose-lit elevator of disco highs and comedowns until you exit wanting more. Meanwhile, on mid-album cut “Tiramisu,” we follow the vocal fry down the laser sonic spiral staircase into a high-voltage room containing rippling electric signals, the high-caliber experimental number highlighting this record’s core tenets: carefree, sleazy, fundamentally arresting dance music.
Most of the record is predominantly occupied by Guerin’s ethereal sound design, which backs Gelli’s off-beat storytime narratives about the peculiarities of the LA party scene. Opener “Funny Music” kicks things off with high-caliber recording toys used to compensate for the lack of depth behind Gelli’s fun, bouncy lyrics. At one point on the record, Gelli laughs sweetly while remembering the name of one of her recollected characters as “shawty with big tits and nipple piercings.” All the while, Guerin’s bass-heavy background covers any questionable morals and moves your body swimmingly along.
This is a bright, pop-trance record that will also likely resonate with the Chappell Roan crowd. The range of electronics used to evoke that vintage dancefloor feeling is what stands out most on Switcheroo. Fusing bedroom-pop relative to PinkPantheress, Magdalena Bay, or early Charli XCX with the energy and pool-side feel of more conventional electronic artists such as SebastiAn or Gryffin (not to mention a bit of Crystal Castles’ morbid electropop), Gelli Haha and Sean Guerin have crafted an album that’s best served over ice, at a party where it belongs. Jumpy and groove-forward, the tracks easily encourage warehouse parties and weekend benders, all while maintaining a glimmer of hope for a resurrection of the 2010s indie-pop movement that sired Passion Pit and MGMT.
