Shamir Returns With Throwback, Meme-Filled Video For '90's Kids'

The phrase "only '90s kids remember the '90s" isn't just a fact, it's a lifestyle. The famous quote that's become a long-running meme and point of pride for an entire generation of kids who were born into the grungy decade known for Nirvana, the Tech Boom and Y2K is also a point of inspiration.

Take Shamir's new single (aptly called "90's Kids") for example. In the music video for the "On The Regular" singer's first track off his upcoming album, Revelations, the queer Las Vegas musician dives deep into visuals only a true '90s kid would remember. Stacked haphazardly on the desktop of a Windows 98-era PC background, the vocals are sung entirely through a greatest hits pile of memes that feature Shamir's mouth on various people.

Related | How Shamir Abandoned the Pop Machine & Found Hope in Lo-Fi, Bedroom Music

It's a humorous and lighthearted ode to the memes that we shared on sites like Myspace and Tumblr, but it comes alongside a dark set of lyrics about crippling anxiety and the struggle that us '90s kids are experiencing every day.

The song's a triumphant, more rock-influenced return for the young singer, whose last major album, Ratchet, came out in 2015. In the two years since that album, he was dropped from his label, self-released a follow-up album called Hope, and spent time in a psychiatric hospital for bipolar disorder. As he explained to OUT earlier this year about that time in his life, "The whole idea and concept for [Hope] came after I was semi-hopeless from not being able to get my ideas out working with other (very talented) people in the industry...I wanted to make something real, and I knew that if I did something real, it would be in its own lane and completely different."

As Shamir gears up to release Revelations in November, check out the music video only a true '90s kid will appreciate.