With his latest offering ‘Delay Deny Depose’, Make Believe Love turns political outrage into punk-rooted, pixelated theatre, proving protest music can be as playful as it is piercing. Lucas Berman, the sardonic mind at the project’s core, threads twangy guitars, lo-fi synth buzz, and an acerbic lyrical grin into a three-minute blast of indie-rock that feels a mix of the Clash’s urgency and Little Shop of Horrors mischief.
The song’s central figure Luigi Mangione, rendered here as a 16-bit folk hero, isn’t a clean-cut protagonist. His surreal slide from overlooked patient to vigilante lightning rod plays out against a backdrop of late-stage capitalist absurdity. The Super Mario–style visuals lampoon the headlines with knowing glee, while the hooks carry enough sugar to make the satire go down easy.
What makes ‘Delay Deny Depose’ especially potent is how it toys with nostalgia as a Trojan horse for dissent. The 16-bit sprites and retro arcade palette tap into a collective memory of simpler times, only to smash that comfort with a storyline steeped in corruption, alienation, and the quiet rage of the overlooked. By marrying bright, jangling melodies with subject matter that cuts deep, Berman forces us to grapple with the dissonance, that bittersweet space where joy and fury co-exist, pixel by pixel, chord by chord.
Like the best protest songs, ‘Delay Deny Depose’ entertains as it plays, reframing a story of corporate cruelty and desperation in a way that demands both a smirk and a second listen. In a landscape flooded with background noise, Make Believe Love delivers something harder to ignore: satire you can dance to.
