“Breakups are… robust.”
It’s the opening traces of an interlude in direction of the top of DOOMED! Known as “It Occurs in Each Universe.” It’s additionally mainly the thesis of your entire document. It’s no grand revelation, but it surely’s a well-trodden topic that Open Mike Eagle manages to mine for creative gold.
Eagle’s subject material is often private, and his productions tinged with nostalgia. However DOOMED! is his most intimate album but. A whole lot of that’s as a result of manufacturing from Kenny Segal. The 2 have traveled in the identical orbit and labored collectively earlier than, however that is the primary full-length album launch from the 2.
These are a few of Segal’s most commanding beats since Maps, his 2023 document with Billy Woods. There’s nonetheless warbly piano samples, strings, detuned sax melodies, and psychedelic synths, however the whole lot feels extra grounded and meaders much less. Opener “Out to Lunch” even has totally on-the-grid hi-hats that tick robotically.
That offers technique to “Streets of Rage: Public Arguments Version,” which grooves together with a unfastened clap, jazzy piano, and assured bassline that remembers the work of Madlib. Over this lowkey funk, Eagle spins an indirect story of combating with a major different. “She lower deep with quick barbs, however twist me up with a lil whisper.”
It seems that Segal and Eagle are an ideal pair. The rapper’s melodrama and eye for microscopic particulars play off the producer’s woozy and forlorn beats which might be sometimes punctuated by a way of foreboding. On the Billy Woods-featuring “She Swear I’m Colorblind,” Eagle intones on the refrain:
Some cause, shit obtained twisted,
Advised me it was all my fault, she mentioned
“Listen once I speak.”
The backing observe is stabbed by with bursts of windchimes earlier than ending on a high-pitched whine that feels just like the onset of a panic assault.
“Unfinished Concrete Initials” comprises a few of Eagle’s most weak bits, like, “In my daydreams your identify’s curse phrases so I bleeped it,” and:
My reminiscences like landmines they usually heinous
Clicking excessive pootify collaborative playlists
Agonizing over deletions
Flushing proof, ache is best in secret
There are nonetheless sparks of Open Mike Eagle’s humorousness, although. “Schrödinger’s Inexperienced Room (There however Uninvited)” opens with him awkwardly proclaiming as if he’s attempting to be heard over a nasty telephone connection, “All my ideas is intrusive, there’s a DJ in my head, and he picks all his personal music, it’s so complicated.” And, as you’d anticipate from the person who penned “Sweatpants Spiderman,” there are numerous popular culture references to anime, Kitty Pleasure, Beanie Infants, Flipmode Squad, and even The Proclaimers.
