Stunning. Lush, acoustic, emo ballads and lamentations. The guitar figures prominently throughout the record. This album sounds fantastic from front to back for existential late night listening. Reminds me a lot of Ryan Adams’ back catalogue at times. RIYL Pavement, Mitski, Elvis Depressedly. FCC: 2

1. (0:49) Intro - Shrieky guitar, barely discernible vocals, ominous bassline and drumming.
2. (2:40) *Bug - FCC: f***. Woolen acoustic guitar and soft synth line. Changes to more prominent vocals and less reverb around 1:00. Alternates with the amount of effects and the prominence of vocals.
3. (2:50) **Thorns - Emo ballad. Starts off slow and acoustic. Greaaaat new, penetrating guitar line introduced at 0:56 which is repeated about a minute later.
4. (2:51) **Kicker - Builds off of the intensity that was steadily building with Thorns. Opens with electric strumming and angsty vocals about feeling low. Nice, oddly satisfying occasional hammer-ons with the guitar. Alternations of a brief single note on electric guitar with acoustic strumming, beginning at 2:00.
5. (4:40) *Salt - Another sad emo song punctuated by occasional deep bass notes. Bass is prominent here in a way it’s not in other songs on the album. Quivering synth line comes in ~2:20. Haunting vocals dealing with watching over a suffering lover. What sounds like children’s voices comes in singing “ah’s” around 3:15.
6. (1:53) **Look Out - 20 second instrumental intro reminds me of cavernous church music. Glittering keyboards cascade through. Reverb. So much reverb. Stunning interlude.
7. (2:31) Brite Boy - Sounds like a lusher Girlpool. Sad confessional music about pining for “brite boy”. Orange, bright fingerpicked notes over a constant, lighter acoustic strumming. By the end there’s at least three guitars.
8. (3:31) *In Love - Wistful, foggy, melancholy. Sax and piano. Pleasantly surprised by Alex G making a jazz-inspired track. The delicateness of the vocals is sort of weak at times and detracts a little from the beauty of the instrumentation.
9. (1:28) Walk - Right from the first few seconds I was reminded of “City Rain, City Streets” by Ryan Adams. Lush guitars. Purely instrumental track.
10. (2:00) Mud - Faint guitars. Especially emo. Multiple sets of vocals. Not a particular standout.
11. (4:21) **Ready - Dialogue between Alex G and what sounds like a higher version of his voice. Silvery, Christmas synths and whoaaaaa these guitars are lush. "She came right through me."
12. (2:35) Station - Weird Iggy Pop-sounding voice. Sort of chaotic.
13. (5:04) *Snot - Rushing guitars and a subtle bass groove. Reminds me a lot of Ryan Adams’ album Gold. Entirely instrumental from the middle until the end. Introspective.