TWINKIDS' Album 'Nobody Likes Me' Is Sweet Catharsis
Music

TWINKIDS' Album 'Nobody Likes Me' Is Sweet Catharsis

Following a year of unprecedented anxiety and isolation, TWINKIDS' new album, Nobody Likes Me, dives deeper into all the insecurities that have been heightened by the pandemic. If its song titles like "Feeling Small" and "911 I'm Sad" don't immediately resonate with you, congratulations — you've somehow tapped into a power that most have not. Certainly I haven't.

The Los Angeles-based queer duo — that previously taught PAPER Japanese — explored "those intrusive thoughts of self-doubt that appear when you're at your worst" to create a seven-track project filled with lyrics stemming "from that irrational voice when you question yourself if you're stupid undesirable, ugly."

Tokyo-born singer-songwriter Jin Fukui and Floridian pianist-producer Matthew Young considered how this mindset — cruel and almost always irrational — has impacted their personal relationships, from love to friendship. But the work was done without getting bogged down in melancholy.

Instead, Nobody Likes Me sounds bright and fresh — an effortless, twinkling sun shower of '80s synth-pop. Tracks pulsate like the best of Robyn's discography with cathartic, sweet vocals for fans of Perfume Genius. And while TWINKIDS' lyrics are open wounds, they still bite: "I've been a bitch to my mother/ Then act like I love her/ Is that why nobody likes me?"

Below, TWINKIDS' Jin and Matthew bring PAPER inside the year that inspired Nobody Likes Me with an exclusive photo diary, from personal shots on LA hikes to drive-in drag outings.

Jin

boyfriend and I went to a beach near Santa Barbara. It was a really cute day... pretty sure I have something stuck in my teeth.

Matthew

Moved to East LA and got very into hiking. Eaton Canyon Falls near where we live in Highland Park.

Stream Nobody Likes Me by TWINKIDS, below.

Photos courtesy of Nina Raj at Yellow House Sessions/ TWINKIDS' Jin Fukui and Matthew Youn

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