Makaio Huizar – Merry Xmas I Guess: Y2K indie indietronica for the blue-tinged void of Christmas –

Tuning into both Y2K indie nostalgia and the sombreness of Christmas that only the most candid admit to, Makaio Huizar strung his heartstrings into Merry Xmas I Guess, a seasonal indietronica confessional that feels like a 3am diary entry under fairy lights while a blue-tinged void quietly opens up inside you. He captures the strain of trying to summon everything you are supposed to feel, including the awkward gratitude for what still remains. The indietronica score is more reverb-drenched synth line strobe lights than Silent Night as Makaio stretches out the musings that surface when you want to disintegrate distance and absence. The diaphanous, choral aura forms an impermeable bubble of isolation around the lyrics, letting you sit with how the season of warmth and connection can feel colder than the months where no one keeps score.

An 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Arizona with roots in Oceanside, California, Huizar has already picked up hundreds of thousands of streams across tracks such as What Am I Waiting For and Town. Growing up as the youngest in a big family in a tough area fed into his instinct to write from the margins, using airy backing vocals and deeply personal lyrics to make other people feel less alone.

For Merry Xmas I Guess, he teamed up with co-producer Vinicius Faina to give his introspection a vintage-hued, frost-on-the-windowpane patina, shaping a Christmas single for anyone who drifts slightly out of phase with enforced cheer and who leans on lo-fi indie melancholy as a pressure valve when the tinsel feels a bit too tight.

Merry Xmas I Guess is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast