Then he was the nicest man on the planet, fairly good-looking along with his new haircut, and good at making what Justin Bieber known as “costly” sounds. Even Skrillex naysayers had been compelled to return to grips along with his endurance, particularly within the wake of his 2023 attraction offensive that culminated in a headline slot at Coachella. However wait. You thought he had matured into an auteur? Bam—after barely a minute, FUCK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 swerves into certainly one of his nastiest dubstep basslines in years, the sort that brings to thoughts matter disintegration rays and malfunctioning hydraulic equipment.
The album by no means seems again from there, peppered with more and more silly DJ tags from Entice-a-Holics legend Shadoe Haze within the guise of Skrillex sidekick DJ Smokey. There are approach too many examples, so I’ll simply choose one: the Wuki collaboration “BIGGY BAP,” a trap-dubstep hybrid with three beat switch-ups. “I’ve Skrillex trapped in my basement! Play this at full quantity or I’ll put him within the gap,” Haze says, earlier than one other voice halts the music: “This beat drop has been seized by Atlantic Data and has been changed with silence.” We hear crickets which are shortly molded into a complete new beat, interrupted by extra voiceovers: “Microwave meal for one sort dubstep beat! My life is in shambles! I’ve extreme despair!”
If that sounds exhausting, that’s as a result of it’s. That is the album equal of a YouTube social gathering the place everybody performs their favourite tracks for 35 seconds at a time and screams over them and sniffs so much. The voiceovers get tiresome, and generally you want a observe would last more than a minute. However there are such a lot of concepts, a lot life packed into each second, that it’s laborious to not be greatly surprised by the sheer power of will. You’ll pay attention to those subsequent 15 seconds of dentist-drill dubstep, and you’ll take pleasure in it.
Because it careens in the direction of climax, FUCK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 all of a sudden turns critical. Skrillex, who was as soon as in an emo band, sings about “the voltage that lives within us” on “Voltage.” Initially the title observe from the album he misplaced on his stolen laborious drives, it’s a little bit of feel-good closure, although the sickly candy sincerity is sort of abrasive after 40 minutes of relentless inside jokes.
However then once more, Skrillex is remarkably honest, and that’s why he’s nonetheless the king of this shit. He’s 37 years outdated and making music that runs laps round dance music producers 15 years his junior, youthful and seasoned on the similar time. It’s laborious to not love him when he’s singing one thing so earnest and hopeful, and heat and purity radiate from the album; it appears like he’s throwing a celebration and on the prime of the invitation listing.
That feeling is what melts even EDM haters finally, permitting him to infiltrate the corners of underground music that after tried to bar him entry. FUCK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 is a victory lap, probably the most enjoyable “I informed you so” you’ll most likely ever hear. The title is a pink herring, as a result of nobody would confuse Sonny Moore for an artist like Andy Warhol. He’s simply Skrillex, writing a number of the most ridiculous dance music ever made and making even purists fall for the wubs. If that’s not Pop Artwork, I don’t know what’s.