Good Times is the eleventh full-length album from long-time, self-described “DIY nobody of the internet void” Alexei Shishkin. Since debuting in 2017, the Virginia-based Shishkin has remained prolific with a steady output of albums and EPs (with three releases in 2024 alone). On Good Times, Shishkin has taken the near automatism of his past work and fully followed that thread, harnessing improvisation and collage, while working closely with Bradford Krieger at Big Nice Studio to create a collection of 12 tracks from scratch in four days. The duo came to the project with no notes and no ideas, favoring a lean, fluid approach to songwriting.
“Disco Elysium” is our first single from the upcoming Shishkin LP, and it is the beautifully and emotionally chaotic listen we all need. There is a cathartic energy to the album’s lead single that cuts through the neck-breaking drums, psychedelic guitars, and hushed vocals, almost as if Shishkin took the hecticness of everyday life and squeezed the color out of it. The artist used the rainbow of paint to craft a relatable yet unique single from an anticipated LP. “Disco Elysium” captures the warmth of lo-fi and expands its definition to fit Shishkin’s affection for off-kilter melodies and evocative poetry. The artist’s writing emphasizes the looseness of the arrangement, as Shishkin pens a potent poem about losing your sense of self. Good Times is set to release on September 5, and “Disco Elysium” should be all the reason you need to be excited about Shishkin’s upcoming LP.
“‘Disco Elysium’ is inspired by what I consider to be the greatest video game of all time (also called Disco Elysium). The world-building, the writing, the characters; every element of that game is so meticulously crafted, and when you put those elements together, they elevate it past ‘video game’ level to ‘art’ level, for me,” explains Shishkin. “The game is surreal, bleak, existential, dreamlike… and the music that Bradford Krieger and I wrote here felt like it matched that tone. So, I decided, ‘Why not? Let me write lyrics that describe some of the Disco Elysium story.’ If you like the idea of having a chat with your lizard brain, a twisted expression stuck on someone’s face, and inhabiting the ruined psyche of a disheveled, erratic amnesiac, you might like Disco Elysium (both the game and this song).”
