‘Petrichor’ is the third album from New Jersey native and former Kanye West protégé 070 Shake. Now signed to Def Jam Records, the rapper-turned-singer has delivered an album of thrashy pop R&B synth dirges that are sometimes angry, sometimes tender, but frequently quite low-slung, stodgy and a bit difficult to listen to.
One of the more difficult tracks served up by Danielle Balbuena is Vagabond, a grimy waltz that veers around like a shopping trolley with a gammy wheel. Deep down, it’s a passable lovelorn ballad, but it’s been assaulted with overblown production and a clunky arrangement. On multiple listens it doesn’t get any better.
Clearly, a creative choice has been made early on that ‘Petrichor’ needs to sound different and ‘other’. The result is that tracks that have odd left turns that leave you feeling a bit confused, and increasingly annoyed.
Another cut to do this is Song to the Siren, which features rock royalty Courtney Love. It opens as a washy synth ballad, but the singing is sloppy in a way that recalls Nico, before being propped up by AutoTune that makes it truly grating. It’s not completely clear where Balbuena ends and Love begins, such is the use of audio effects. Before the track has really gone anywhere, it ends.
Things are a bit better on Elephant, which matches some exciting robot chorus vocal manipulation with grungy techno that recalls Depeche Mode. The lyrical conceit itself relates to more relationship turmoil: “I can be your elephant / I'll remember everything”. You could probably liken the chunky beat to the stomp of an elephant’s feet, but what would really lift this track is some pachyderm-style trumpet sounds. Yes, it might be a bit silly, but it would inject a bit of fun to an album that often feels quite sulky.
One of the challenges found in ‘Petrichor’ is that its more imaginative elements tend to feel like afterthoughts, like they didn’t have a particularly good track in the first place so they used AI to mess it up a bit. This style of production results in an album that feels throwaway and unsatisfying.
There are likely critics who will love the way the record represents a kind of antimusic and one might be missing something truly profound and avant-garde, but ultimately the record sounds like it was created to soundtrack the trailer to a made-for-TV young adult vampire movie. That's not a good thing.
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