JUNE HENRY — ‘INFINITE MONEY GLITCH’

Writer’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

*note: June Henry uses the pronouns he/she/it. These will be used variably throughout this review.

Having made a name for herself through the surprise-virality of a thirty second voice note titled ‘Void-Adjacent,’ June Henry’s sound is marked by this kind of rough and ready underproduction; its music is frequently raw, frequently wrenching, and often emotionally difficult. He captures an emotionality that hits horribly close to home. It seems like, at every worst moment of my life, June Henry is there to score it in a more eloquent way than I often find it possible to.

Infinite Money Glitch is another one of these albums. It’s hit me like a hammer to the head at just the right time. It’s a beautiful, sparse, messy record, and at points, listening to it felt like an out of body experience. Cards on the table, the way that Henry writes instrumentation is stripped back and simplistic. Fans of more layered soundscapes won’t necessarily find what they want here. If you’re like me, though, and all it takes to get to you is three chords and the truth, you’ll probably

Introductory track ‘daylight’ is a fairly typical Henry track. She writes frequently in the second person, addressing “you” (simultaneously the listener, and the real or fictional subject of the songs themselves). It ends with another typically Henry-ish line “Stop me in my tracks (And do what you want to)…You want something good too.” The you/me split is one of the many ways in which Henry produces this feeling of personal intimacy in her work, alongside the deceptive simplicity of her poetry. She covers topics like interdependence and interpersonal difficulty with such bluntness and deftness, and the fuzziness of her instrumentation beautifully underscores this straightforwardness.

Title track ‘infinite money glitch’ made my head snap up like a dog hearing its name called; Henry compares the “you” of the track to the “non-existent curvature” of the earth and the assassination of JFK, using the framework of conspiratorial thinking to make a point about the ways that love can sometimes make you feel like a conspiracy theorist. It’s such a wonderfully nuts comparison that it grabbed me by the collar and didn’t let me go. ‘infinite money glitch’ reminds me of the song ‘flat earth romcom’ from her same-named 2023 EP, where she covers similar material. One of the things I really like about Henry’s work is this feeling of thematic consistency, where it allows for development and iteration.

‘airplane angel’ is a song that perfectly captures the feeling of wanting someone to play a role in your life when they feel inaccessible, and the knock-on effect that has on your sense of self. Henry’s voice strains at the edges, which comes into focus even more on ‘23rd.’ ‘23rd’ really got its teeth into me; I’m coming up on my 21st birthday, and I’ve recently began the process of gender transition. There’s nothing quite like hearing June Henry say the phrase “I miss being a girl in your eyes” and feeling the bottom drop out of your stomach. ‘split wish’ is a song about repetitions of cycles of trauma, delivered with expected brutal efficacy — “you’re the devil on my shoulder, I’m the angel on yours.”

‘spitting teeth’ is my favourite song on the album by far. It’s about wanting someone so bad that you want them to hit you. Cards on the table again, I experience symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, and this kind of obsessive, violent affection is something that, in my darkest moments, I believe that I want. This is never true, and I’m capable of distinguishing the truth of my feelings from the wild spirals they enter, but it does illustrate how well Henry is keyed into at least my psyche. Both ‘looking in’ and ‘plausible deniability (outro)’ are songs I found unfortunately forgettable. They’re both short enough to be entirely forgivable; they gave me breathing room to process and enjoy the rest of the work.

I had a brutally good experience of Infinite Money Glitch — it’s lyrically and instrumentally perfect as it relates to my tastes, and it reflects some tangible and horrible personal realities. I’m unsure how I would’ve found ‘infinite money glitch’ without things going badly wrong in my personal life, but I don’t think that it matters. June Henry’s songs are blunt snapshots of personal moments and experiences; I’d like to review its work to reflect that feeling.