Styles: Incelcore, Slacker Rock, Garage Punk | US
As Rock has more and more drifted away from everyday life and more into trust fund woes and pretentiousness, there's been a vacuum left for brash yet genuine music in the genre. What emerged in the late 2010s was Incelcore (or Epunk if you're lame), a loose scene of artists doing Slacker Rock, Pop Punk and other sounds but with the tone and lyrical themes of inceldom, loneliness and detachment from modern society. This compilation works as an intro to the genre, compiling some of its earliest members. They are:
>Negative XP,
>Hard Christ,
>Sodaboy64,
>Spree,
>Werewolf Hair,
>Greens on Toast,
>Willow
Negative XP is the most well-known and controversial one here, with some of his songs blowing up a few months before this released due to their controversial and very edgy lyrics. The Scott Pilgrim track was the most hated one, which I understand as a sort of knee-jerk reaction when first hearing it but people actually thoughr this was 100% serious? I do think XP genuinely dislikes this archetype of woman he describes here (rightfully so) but the way people talk about it you'd think he was saying we need to send all women to concentration camp. Yes, it's edgy, but if you give him (and the scene in general) a chance you'll discover a lot of melodically pleasing and emotionally vulnerable music underneath the layers of irony and pessimism. The standout track is definitely Mkultra Victim, with the best writing of his tracks:
„TV screens of my memories
Show static waves of apathy
I'm a broken piece of what I used to be
I lost my mind when I was lost in dreams
I'm wide awake, but I can't wake up
[...]
I'm an MKUltra Victim
There's poison in my system
I'm an MKUltra Victim
There's poison in my system“
Might be the catchiest Rock song I've heard of the last 15 years, especially the riff and melody in general. Despite the artists' lo-fi sensibilities, it still sounds clean and appropriately noisy when it needs to be. The apathy line is particularly important as it reveals a distinction a lot of people ignore when they're talking about this album/scene. Of course there's a lot of cynicism present but the crucial element is the pity and self-loathing. It's so much more sensitive than contemporary Rock is, even when it's trying to be sad because this has a lot less theatrics. The production sounds like it was made in a bedroom, because it was. The lyrics sound like they were written by a young adult male with no direction in life, because they were! XP's set is the best one here but the others are good too to varying degrees.
Hard Christ is great too, though unlike the others he has more of a punk flair to him which works really well and he has the vocals to sell it. Stop Talking is the best example of this, he genuinely just sounds pissed off in a very relatable way. That's why I connect to this as much as I do, it's relatable even though it may sound pathetic but it really depicts Gen Z's dissatisfaction with the cards they were dealt.
Sodaboy64 is notable because as an artist he veers more into Emo territory, unfortunately the tracks here are short and don't show off his skills that well. They're still good though, I recommend his album Peachy Peach to get more of a feel for what he's like.
Spree is just fine. Three short tracks and not much special to say for him, I have a feeling he made it onto the comp only because of how early he was to the scene.
Werewolf Hair, just like the aforementioned Sodaboy64, has some decent songs here that sadly don't present his own musical quirks, with him being a bit adjacent to Noise Pop on his debut Feast Dream.
Greens on Toast has the standard Slacker Rock production but paired with the incredibly irritating vocals possible. He sounds so whiny (in a bad way) that it really lowers the potential any song could have. He's generally well regarded in the scene so maybe it'll grow on me with more listens, but I also heard his debut self-titled which I had the same problems with as this.
Willow (aka xo_willow) is likely the most experimental set of songs, with his vocals being very autotuned and sometimes off-key, but in a way that makes the songs really memorable. The production is more pop punk-y which goes together with them. I'm Not Incelcore (titled Screaming on Top of a 5 Story Building here) is top three tracks on here. He's also notable because he was around 14-15 when he appeared on this and went on to make music under many more aliases, namely Crucify April right now.
Volume 1 serves as a great introduction to the scene at the time when it was still in its infancy, but suffers from an unremarkable tracklist at many points. Another volume was released a few months later, which I haven't heard yet but is likely on a similar level of quality. Some of the people here went on to have relatively fruitful careers while others quickly faded into obscurity. It's one of the most significant albums in recent memory, especially in Rock music.
8.5/10
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