I was almost all the way out the door yesterday when Team began to rapidly hoot and holler their enthusiasm for a new thing from HAMIDASYSTEM, who it will not surprise you to learn will be appearing in the Homicidols Best of 2019 voting. Seeing as how I was on my way out the door, no man, no matter how much I love this impossible little art project, I wasn’t going to stop. There was pie at stake! And sweet potatoes and the like!

But now that it’s just me and the aftermath of my gluttony to deal with, I can take the time to appreciate what it was that folks were so smitten by, and–

It’s everything that I ever want, at least from HAMIDASYSTEM. It’s easy in retrospect to talk about how good the project (I hesitate to use “group” for a full-on reboot) was in its previous incarnation and that we, fans of it, have every reason to be skeptical of the new version until given ample reason otherwise. But here’s the thing — they’ve been doing it since they debuted back in the spring, every preview or clip that they put out is immaculate, and listen to this! Granted, you can get a member of Team to cosign almost anything that fits within descriptors like “dreamy” and “ethereal” and things like that, and we’re all art rock aficionados, but come on: I’m trying to think of any individual songs for the year that I like more, and I’m currently coming up short.

So in summary, yes, HAMIDASYSTEM Me and She have proven themselves totally, and this is at least as good as the original, and I’m back in full-on stupid love with them. Their first album in this iteration is out in less than a week, and by the gods you should buy it.