Review
If "Kiss Yr Frenemies" were a cocktail, it’d be served in a chipped mason jar and garnished with sarcasm. Sarah Tudzin and Illuminati Hotties stir up 11 snappy tracks, blending fuzzed-out guitar zing with lyrics sharp enough to slice open your old high school yearbook insecurities. The songs are LA sunshine with a dash of existential dread, capturing both bike rides to nowhere and the radiant panic of adulthood like a party that never quite gets busted.
Tudzin’s voice swings between nonchalant storytelling and late-night oversharing, riding over riffs that are part sugar rush, part joyful chaos. There’s a generous spritz of self-deprecating humor in tracks like "Patience" and "Cuff," where personal drama becomes indie rock anthem material. "Kiss Yr Frenemies" isn’t afraid to get a little noisy before pulling you back in with a grin, setting the tone for everything Illuminati Hotties pull off next. - Dave
Artist Bio
Illuminati Hotties is the indie rock and pop punk project of Sarah Tudzin, who hails from Los Angeles, California. Tudzin began releasing music as illuminati hotties in 2018 with the album Kiss Yr Frenemies, and describes her sound as "tenderpunk"—a blend of energetic, emotionally honest indie rock and pop punk. With a background in music production and engineering from Berklee College of Music, she handles both frontwoman and producer duties, and has also worked behind the scenes with artists like Macklemore, Coldplay, and Lady Gaga. Noted for clever hooks and a balance of playful and heartfelt lyrics, illuminati hotties have built a solid reputation with albums like Let Me Do One More and the 2024 release POWER. Fans of Charly Bliss, Hop Along, and Diet Cig may find something to like in illuminati hotties’ sound.
