Shiny
Jemaine Clement
Jemaine Clement's turn as a preening, glam-rock crab deity is one of animated film's most committed character performances. The production is a loving, genuinely skilled pastiche of 1970s David Bowie at his most theatrical — swirling falsetto passages, glam stomp percussion, underwater reverb that makes everything feel slightly submerged and dream-adjacent. Clement's voice, normally deadpan and laconic, unfurls into something surprisingly supple, hitting camp grandeur notes with evident delight. The song functions as villain aria filtered through absurdist comedy: Tamatoa's obsession with surface beauty and treasure is both ridiculous and, in its own warped logic, philosophically coherent. Lyrically it riffs on the cruelty of aesthetics, on being dismissed before you sparkle. Listen in a dark room with good speakers to fully appreciate how lovingly the production mimics its references while remaining distinctly, gloriously itself.
medium
2010s
glittery, reverb-soaked, theatrical
American (British glam rock influence)
Pop, Musical Theater. Glam rock pastiche villain aria. Theatrical, Campy. Opens with preening self-introduction and escalates into absurdist grandeur, never breaking its own committed internal logic. energy 7. medium. danceability 6. valence 6. vocals: supple falsetto, camp grandeur, deadpan turned theatrical, committed, comic. production: 1970s Bowie pastiche, glam stomp percussion, swirling falsetto, underwater reverb. texture: glittery, reverb-soaked, theatrical. acousticness 3. era: 2010s. American (British glam rock influence). Best in a dark room with good speakers to appreciate how lovingly the production mimics its references.