toro y moi

The sonic chameleon feints left just when we expected him to spin right, twisting into the hazy vapours of cloud rap whilst still retaining that chillwave-indie-emo style that we first fell for - this combination comes off like Sufjan Stevens turning his hand to mumble rap and in no way is that a bad thing: A match made in heaven, we say.

Chaz Bear’s eighth full-length studio record as Toro y Moi is the genre shapeshifter’s most unexpected and bold move to date, with Bear diving headlong into rap-rock, Soundcloud rap and Y2K emo. The album blitzes anthemic pop-punk next to autotuned, melancholic rap – two genres that inform one another now more than ever before — and packs in the most features ever on a Toro y Moi album. A sense of nostalgia sneaks its way into almost every Toro y Moi release, but angst is an emotion that Bear has never intentionally explored the way he does here. Tracks like “Tuesday'' channel a specific, yet forever-relatable sense of adolescent unease. A distorted guitar riff leads into a repeating chorus that conjures misunderstood teenagers singing aloud, maybe too loud, while riding bikes through American suburbs. This foreboding can also be heard on “HOV,” though not without poking some fun with lines like “Romance is so cold / My advice? To bring a coat.”