jaydes - heartpacing
Sitting at position 100 in Pitchfork's list of the best 100 albums of the 2020s (so far), jaydes' heartpacing from 2022 is an EP of 9 tracks that clocks in at just 16 minutes long.
Considering that jaydes was only 16 years old when this was released this is really impressive. Stylistically this isn't something I'm really into - specifically the vocal style, which is drowning in autotune and occasionally descends into mumblerap - but because of that I actually really appreciate the short length of the songs, which barring a couple of tracks are all shorter than two minutes long. I generally like short songs anyway - I'm a hardcore kid at heart - but I find this sort of trap/soundclound rap/whatever genre this is quite repetetive, and I get bored quickly. The fact that these tracks get in and get out without having time to grow stale is absolutely a point in heartpacing's favour.
However I feel about the vocals, there's definitely a lot to like here musically. don't worry about Me has some really cool instrumentation, with lo-fi keys floating on top of an almost-too-loud sub bass that's all layered with sounds that could have come from a kid's toy that somehow work. patience contains probably my favourite vocals on the album, blending an atonal hyperpop-esque hook with a great upbeat middle section sung by Riovaz that's probably my favourite moment on the record.
This isn't something I'll come back to, but I'm glad I gave it a spin.