Written by Faye Allego
Picture this: You’re twelve years old, your parents run an internet cafe down the street and you borrow your Kuya’s PSP 3000 to play The Sims 2. Your best friends come by to play the bartender game on Y8.com while Kuya is on an extreme DOTA battle. You’re not too keen on the fact that it’s the first day of school when you wake up but at least you’re having the time of your life now and who knows, maybe your mom might pack you Yan Yans or an extra bottle of Yakult for lunch tomorrow.
You didn’t think of it then, but amidst all of the popular mid-aughts games, excitements, and leisures, “no one knows where they’re really going.”
That lyric from Ruru’s new single titled “Liminal” transcends me into this portal of, well, liminal spaces. Spaces I had never thought would be so empty, yet full of life in retrospect.
The song is upbeat, it does not contain the subtle mood of tragedy commonly heard in wistful chord progressions and melodies, however, the lyrics say otherwise. The song’s lyrics as well as perhaps the lack of strings, share key elements seen in the Hauntology genre; in the sense that something “lost” from the song’s features is haunting. Aside from channeling how the song feels sonically, this song looked like a kaleidoscope of every single one of those dreamcore, corecore, weirdcore, and vaporwave aesthetics I’ve seen across social media. Any lyric can be used to caption a liminal space photograph and evoke the feelings of longing for something you didn’t realize you’ll never get back as an everyday, mundane feeling. The worst part is that “something” can be everything from the past.
In Ruru’s words, “We’re just way too in our heads/ Passing on acquaintances/ Some days I’m not quite myself / Yet I’m on my bed…”
Liminal is also one of those unique tracks where you don’t need to actually feel a certain emotion when listening to it despite the existentialist lyrics. It’s a song that could pass as an Animal Crossing tune on a Nintendo DS. It can be your go-to shower song, or the absolute final song you choose to go on your Instagram story when posting to a monthly wrap-up collage template.
I’d love to hear this track be a part of an album that explores the genre of Hauntology or even avant-garde electronic music that we don’t typically see in OPM. Additionally, the cover art for this track could pass for an album cover itself! It looks like Ruru’s self-portrait is taken from a driver’s license, exemplifying adulthood or the oversaturation that can suggest the technicolor that life brings in the mundane. Or maybe she just looks really good and so does her music. That’s what I think.
Cheers to more Ruru!
Support the art & the artist: