BY JOSEPH DEBELL, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Album Score: 5/5
Photo Courtesy of @quadeca on Instagram
Former YouTube star Benjamin Lasky (Quadeca) has done enough musical evolution to turn himself into a genuine songwriter/producer that can compete with other names in the music industry. At first glance, this LP manifests fragments of his previous record, From Me to You, with its droning base notes and glitchy texture in its instrumentation. However, after this record opened the floodgates, critics weren’t sure how deep the water would run after it all washed out. The answer? Very, very deep.
Despite the concept of From Me to You being rudimentary, I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You provides a more myopic and introspective concept of suicide. The idea behind this album is Quadeca looking back at life after killing himself or wandering around life as a ghost unable to communicate with everyone and filled with guilt. As the LP progresses, this concept finds ways to reinvent itself in every single song.
Highlights of this artistic concept are shown in songs such as House Settling, where Quadeca’s ghost is unable to speak to his loved ones and is willing to do anything to try and get their attention. Anytime he tries anything, his family dismisses it as “house settling”. This song also includes Danny Brown rapping from the perspective of carbon monoxide. This further adds to the House settling effect because as houses start to settle, it’s possible for carbon monoxide to leak and fill the house.
The actual music in this record is as deep and layered as the concept is. Quadeca provides a unique blend of folktronica and bedroom pop that all gets soaked in reverb. I’m enamored with this album, and for good reasons, as it’s one of the most sonically textured pieces of art I’ve heard in years.
The features on this LP do a perfect job at backing up the grandiose songwriting and creativity Quadeca brings to the table. The most noticeable of these features being the Sunday Service Choir and percussionist Thor Harris of Shearwater and Swans. Both have their own way of adding just enough without it all spilling over the top.
The lyrics here are also some of the most fully realized writing I’ve heard from Quadeca in his entire discography. This goes for some of the smaller moments, such as the following lyric off of Don’t Mind Me.
“Formaldehyde, maybe you don’t have to cry
Get the scraps, piece me back to life”
Sometimes it could be in more heart-wrenching ways, such as lyrics in Tell Me a Joke.
“Knock knock, who’s there? Tell me a joke
Something feels off, was it words that I spoke?
Or was it something else? The door must of broke
How can it be? It’s a setup, the punchline was me”
I fully understand why this record is getting the hype from music critics. To me, this was the best LP that was released in 2022 and will stay near the top of one of my most memorable and favorite listens as of today.
debelljb22@bonaventure.edu
