Yeah, that’s the cover. A black vast emptiness. I’m not going to say anything fake deep because neither me nor you knows what it supposed to convey if anything. So all I’m going to say is it’s kind of cool. Like going in you have no idea what to expect. You can’t even judge this “book” by it’s cover because there isn’t one.
You might not even know who Gesaffelstein is. And that adds to the mystique. Not to assume, but I’m sure a good percentage of the people that listened to this album only did because it features some big names. The Weeknd, Pharrell, HAIM & more all make appearances. But if you do know Gesaffelstein it’s probably from his work with Kanye. He co-produced Send It Up and Black Skinhead. Two amazing songs to have in your repertoire. Those beats hit so hard so Gesaffelstein’s solo work must slap too right? Yes, a hundred percent yes.
Man, this album is fire from start to finish. It reminds me of the movie Drive. It teleports me to the 80’s and everyone is coked out and driving Ferrari’s in Miami. It has a perfect blend of high tones, but it can dark on you quick. A perfect example of this is the transition from Hyperion to Reset. Hyperion sounds like you’re watching the sunrise and you feel the warmth on your skin and everything is good then as soon as Reset starts the Sun is shot out of the sky and you get robbed instantly. At least that’s what it feels like to me.
The features come through too. Weeknd kills his track as I’d expect him to. It reminds me of him during the Trilogy era. He sings about wanting to have threesome with a girl, but wanting her to stay with her afterwards. I mean if that’s not real love then I obviously don’t know what love is. HAIM comes through and delivers killer vocals as usual. Got damn though, the lyrics to their song are so sad and their voices convey so much emotion. HAIM really join together like Voltron when they’re on the same song together. Hearing them sing about a failed relationship makes me feel like shit and I ain’t even apart of the situation.
Okay so the track with Pharrell deserves it’s own paragraph because it’s that fucking good. I’ve never heard P snap like this on a song before. He doesn’t usually connect with electronic/edm type songs (As we saw with Go Up, that song is hot dumpster juice. And it wasn’t even Pharrell’s fault, just a misuse of him.) But this shit? This shit right here? This shit is golden. You know the feeling you get when you hear a song for the first time and you feel like you’ve needed it in your life since you were born? This is one of those songs to me. I haven’t felt like that since I heard Golddust by Danny Brown. This song is like you got teleported into TRON and you fell in love with a computer girl. I’m hyping this up so much because this is the best song i’ve heard in a minute.
But the whole album is great. It’s an odyssey to be honest. It ends with an almost 11-minute track that goes through so many sounds. One minute it sounds like something out of Castlevania, then it hits you with the Bladerunner, then it hits you with the 2001: A Space Odyssey and you feel like your just hopelessly travelling along the endless vacuum of space. Just do yourself a favor and listen to it.
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