Fluid and stylish but not quite as cosmopolitan as its music video is, the new single “Enjoy the View” by Papi Shiitake is definitely an interesting listen if you’re into crossover content that doesn’t follow the rules of any one school, but moreover, it’s an alternative pop/rock track that strives to marry as many bright melodies together without sounding over the top (a tall order for any artist to pull off).

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There’s no denying the fact that Shiitake’s ambitiousness is on his sleeve in this performance, but if we isolate all of the components from each other, he isn’t being quite as theatrical in his actions as it might initially seem. 

The music video for “Enjoy the View” puts the humility of the pop aesthetic here ahead of self-serving egotism and particularly the confident energy of the lyrics in general, but this doesn’t make its visuals seem a little too zany for the soundtrack at all. On the contrary, a bit of contrast with the imagery invites comparisons to the conceptualism of Ween or even someone more contemporary like Phil Norby. That’s a pretty fine class of artists to be in, and I won’t be the only listener to tell you as much. 

A surreal treat for pop fans and a worthy addition to the playlist of any college rock aficionado, Papi Shiitake’s “Enjoy the View” is an interesting single and music video that should leave a lot of folks in the audience very intrigued by what this artist has planned for the future.

He’s still getting his feet wet in the industry, but personally I think he’s showing a lot of compositional promise and legitimate performance moxie in this release that makes his a very fun story to keep on top of. I’ll keep him on my radar, and I recommend you do the same. 

Zachary Rush