Senior Dunce debuts with delightful chaos in ”City Centre”

Senior Dunce is one of those slightly oddball artists who will grab your interest from the very first listen. On his first single, “City Centre,” he enters the fray wearing mismatched clothing and a deadpan stare, bringing just the right amount of nonsensical oddness to become absolutely engaging. For all its name, for all the pun of it, there is a droll, convoluted intellect at play behind the dunce, the deliberate eccentric.

“City Centre” is a lovely and odd proposition, which is exactly the point From the get-go, it becomes obvious that it’s not your run of the mill track, and that’s a good thing. Somehow, Senior Dunce makes it all make perfect sense out of sheer ridiculousness, delivering every line with his otherworldly charm, mixing weird vocal ideas with an earworm of a melody. His pronunciation of “center” might be laughably incorrect, or perhaps astutely correct. Either way, it cannot be ignored.

The official music video only heaps on another layer of chaos to this delightful mess. Clad in a mash-up of thrift-shop finds and ironic secondhand accessories, Senior Dunce works the urban landscape with the sort of carefree confidence only the clueless or the shrewd can muster. The video is part performance art, part indie pop, part comedic timing, and somehow it all works perfectly.

“City Centre,” comes off as a eulogy for le blase´ and a supposedly wistful tribute to those with a different outlook on life. Every weird decision, from weird-ass dance moves to weird-ass delivery, is deliberate; we have a songwriter who’s fully in control of himself. There’s a method to Senior Dunce’s weirdness, not simple desperation for attention, because he’s building a world where the very thing being a bit off-kilter is what makes the world go round.

On “City Centre,” Senior Dunce makes it clear that his playful idiocy is only a guise for sharp, creative wit. This is not a debut authored by a new artist; it’s the laying down of a vibe. No matter whether you lean in to him or scratch your head at his style, one thing is clear: he’s unforgettable.