Applied Communications Salvages the Crumbling Relevancy of the Cultural Touchstones of Youth in Bedroom Synthpop Single “Oxytocin Drunk”

Applied Communications, photo courtesy the artist

Applied Communications dives deep into Millennial nostalgia and inverted self-loathing on “Oxytocin Drunk.” The song has an upbeat melody and rhythm with expertly cadenced lyrics altogether like an indiepop MC Chris song. The song is beyond a parody of the angry nerd. It takes all the intrusive and dark thoughts that sink you when, for those that can relate, when you’re swan diving into the terminal velocity of the amplified anxiety zone and turns them into unlikely life rafts in the depression deep end. There’s a choice, wryly tragic joke about kids whose faces we’ll never see when the Tamagotchi dies. All amidst dated cultural references and the detritus of the symbols of a ruined middle class American life that were foundations of life if you were alive before the late 90s. Applied Communications both laughs and lets out a few implied tears at the absurdity of it all and the emotional anchors that helped define our lives swimming in consumer culture and in the end with a line about how he loves himself, a nod to the title of the song, and the trap of being too tied up in that yet needing to do so to have some thread of something to cling to that can’t really be taken away from you or forcefully redefined/sequeled/re-queled or discarded like so many of the things to which one might have a nostalgic attachment. And there is actual power and dignity in that realization. A lot of self-awareness and personal insight is packed into the roughly two minute song as well as a curiously poignant pop resonance that stays with you. Listen to “Oxytocin Drunk” on Spotify and follow Applied Communications at the links below.