Song Recommendation: “Mall of Luv” by Discovery Zone

Just when you think the vaporwave aesthetic can’t get you any more, along comes something that reignites those old neurons you thought were obliterated in the vaporcore schism into backrooms lore onslaught circa 2018. I thought I’d seen my last “fuzzed-out depiction of threadbare memories of an average U.S. kid who grew up in the ’80s/’90s and spent any time at all in the carpeted corporate mega-capitalist palaces of kid-friendly fast food joints and indoor shopping malls.” And it’s malls, in particular, that are the nostalgic locus here, with Discovery Zone’s absolute little bop, “Mall of Luv.” Noise-gated drums, clipped sax samples, and bright synth hits put us firmly in the world of chintzy ’80s pop, but the distinctly modern song construction and intentionally artificial production make it stand out as a catchy bit of whatever current micro-iteration of vaporwave-indebted music we’re currently living in.