SHARLIZA JELITA - CLAUSTROPHOBIA
Headtones Music

I’ll be damned if I can figure out what to make of this. At first listen, it feels like a car crash of electro, R&B and self-conscious eccentricity of the Lady Gaga variety, with horribly overworked autotuned vocals. It took a lot for me to make it through the two and a half minutes of the single, and my initial reaction was to blast it to Hell.

And yet… this seems to have wormed its way into my mind, like some sort of brain-eating worm chewing away at my consciousness. I can’t decide if the quirkiness of Sharliza Jelita is genuine or not – if her wacky behaviour and oddball sounds are the products of her being authentically mad or simply a cynical marketing ploy. A visit to her retina-battering website seems to suggest the former (and also has some rather better tunes to listen to). I hope so.

Either way, I can’t say that this is a good record in any conventional sense. But it might have some sort of Birdemic charm about it and – be warned – one listen is enough for the damn thing to resonate around your head for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, I find myself strangely drawn to finding out more about her…costs.

DAVID FLINT