The single “over/over” from Guatemalan-born, Montreal-based musician Hockitay was written in the throes of what the artist calls “social media overload.” It should come as no surprise, then, that the song interrogates the relationship between spectacle, performativity, and originality. In the wake of their 2025 EP, slo mach, the artist reveals a more introspective style that reflects incisively on the toxic social media climate of our contemporary moment. Evidently exhausted by the culture of “hot takes” and relentless content creation, Hockitay opts for a less tiring–if somewhat unsettled–understanding of their place in both physical and digital worlds. The production melds organic and digital sounds into a moody dreampop melody that effectively washes over the listener.
It begins with the narrator’s insistence that they are “not asking/ not asking/ anymore questions.” Each word arrives slowly, with a quasi-guttural pronunciation and dramatic pauses, allowing the listener to consider how each phrase changes shape and meaning as the song develops. In fact, what at first appears to be a reluctance to analyze and think critically turns out to be a renunciation of superficial thinking. Rather than resort to easy answers, the artist takes a step back to more thoughtfully consider the world around them. This renunciation, of course, runs contrary to the culture of social media in which we are constantly inundated with opinions, answers, quick fixes, and direct paths to optimization. While that very same culture continues to promise some kind of escape or relief, the singer maintains, “I’ve felt no relief/ It’s always me/ Over and over again.” And if it is this inward turn that allows Hockitay to continue to produce their signature musical style alongside trenchant critiques of contemporary culture, I’m certainly here for it. Given early responses to the single, it would seem that the world is, too.
Written by SilenceKid
