I first heard Swords2 around the middle of last year. His unusual delivery and mixing threw me off and it took me listening again a year later to finally understand the appeal.
It was only a kiss is an unusual opener, with Swords crooning over a Mall Screamo instrumental. I don't love it and it's a strange deviation from the rest of the EP sonically, but aesthetically it makes sense to include. It definitely grew on me after a few vocals though, the exasperated are charming even with their obvious roughness. Ur killing me serves as more of an actual intro. The bright-synthed PluggnB beat is the backdrop to emotional singing and rapping.
„Give me your love to stay
It's all just particles anyway
Oh, don't tell me not now
You have a heart of gold
I'm not a clown“
At the root of this release's appeal is exactly what makes it unappealing in the first place. The vocals are melodic yet brash, rarely using autotune other than certain moments like the chorus of I loved you. It's a very vulnerable performance, even when his voice cracks a little or he doesn't hit a note, there's just so much heart put into it. At times it nevertheless really is too much, like on the intro to Sad Clown with the ghastly yelling. The production is solid, comprised of relatively generic beats but they do their job well enough and have some nice melodies. The mixing is again raw, sounding like a freshly exported demo. This works very well though because it adds to the sensitive vocals to make them so exposed in the songs' mixes. It's more of a problem on less emotive tracks such as the above-mentioned Sad Clown or Givemhell. The songs are still good, but they would've benefited from harder hitting beats and mixing that would make them have the impact they're going for. Unbound is a stripped-back acoustic outro that almost gets uncomfortable with how exposed it feels, reminds me of Xiu Xiu.
Mr. Take a Loss is an endearing short glimpse into the heart of its creator, accentuated by the fragile vocals and melodic production. I'm glad I gave it another chance, as it's one of the most memorable modern Plugg releases. I'll definitely listen to more of him soon, hopefully its more polished while retaining the emotion.
7.5/10
See also: Xxffcyuvcui, in53ct
- kreyzi
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