Review Summary: Skrillex provides a debut record that lacks consistency, throwing in some solid tracks while also providing a second half literally drowning in generic and dull material.
It's quite interesting how a guy like Skrillex, a man who used to do punk and rock music, decided to release an actual studio album after being around the last six years in the EDM genre. His multple extended plays in "Bangarang" and Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites" have garnered him immense acclaim, so much to the point that he would win a Grammy for his EP with "Bangarang" in 2012. The "dubstep" that he has done has ranged from classic to absolutely terrible, and even earning some talks of how he is the "death to EDM", which will always be a debatable question with guys like David Guetta, Zedd, and Krewella producing equally as bad material. It took the man known as Sonny Moore long enough to release his debut studio record with "Recess", which has been one long-awaited for ages. Unfortunately though, Skrillex proves in his freshman record exactly what the numerous amounts of EDM fans have been saying: creating mostly horrifying and ridiculously generic electronic/dubstep material that can get easily annoying after awhile. Add that with the terrible guest appearances on vocals in some of the tracks, ranging from rappers like G-Dragon and CL to more unknown artists like Niki & The Dove, and you have yourself a debut record that highlights how much Skrillex has overstayed his welcome in the genre of electronic dance music.
The album actually starts off on the right foot, the first half mostly containing the vintage Skrillex that those have come to enjoy and adore. The production done in the first half mostly is incredible, this definitely shows first-hand the otherwise fantastic ability Skrillex can possess. It takes off almost immediately with the intro track "All Is Fair In Love And Brostep", containing a memorable vocal sample of a rocket taking off with "this much power". The Ragga Twins on vocals were actually pretty impressive, even though the use of Auto-Tune is obvious and ridiculous but they give the track a dark, sinister feel which works out perfectly. The best part is easily the climax of the track, when Moore decides to go all-out exploding with deadly bass-drops and riffs which has been seen numerous times from him with his hit tracks in "Bangarang" and his remix of Benny Bennasi's "Cinema". The second track that is self-titled slightly turns down the intensity but still goes hard with a vocal sample from Michael Angelakos and awesome rapping coming from Fatman Scoop, the man well-known for his feature in Missy Elliot's "Lose Control" slightly less than a decade earlier in 2005. Sonny's style of starting a track with little intensity, then building it up until it goes down with an immense amount of 'wobbles' and bass drops along with repeating it one last time is prominent throughout the album, it starts to get repetitive and therefore annoying in the second half. "Stranger" with Sam Dev is another standout, the vocals along with the beats providing a more chilling, haunting edge than the first two. "Coast Is Clear" with Chance the Rapper is a surprising one, providing a humorous and fun sound that is unlike Moore and certain to get love regardless if you love or hate Skrillex.
The second half of the LP completely derails the entire record, completely legitimizing the numerous claims of how Skrillex is the man responsible for degrading EDM. The self-destruction begins with "Dirty Vibe", a collaboration with acclaimed DJ and Mad Decent founder Diplo with raps provided by South Korean rappers G-Dragon and CL. It starts instantly, with the title name on vocal loop constantly throughout the track which is easily annoying. The beats actually aren't bad here, but the raps from the two South Koreans were complete trash and awful. "Ragga Bomb" is definitely one of his worst, with overall lackluster production with its agitating beats along with the Ragga Twins back again on vocals. While their guest feature on "All Is Fair In Love And Brostep" was excellent, their part in this particular track shows that they have overstayed their welcome on the LP. "Doompy Poomp" could go down as probably the worst track Skrillex has ever done, with a huge amount of static noise that is prevalent throughout the entire track and it's ear-bleeding bad. "Ease My Mind" was another flop, with Niki & The Dove providing otherwise horrible vocals which ironically doesn't ease the mind at all. The most frustrating part about the entire LP is how much vulgarity is used on the guest features, it is absolutely absurd. Alot of it is just thrown out there just for the sake of it, which comes out as a big negative.
Skrillex threw to the masses an otherwise lackluster debut that wasn't up to par with his previous material, even besting some of his worst material which is pretty sad if you can beat your worst albums with another. It is easily a huge disappointment for him. "Recess" had its moments where it shined, providing us the side of vintage Skrillex while also changing his sound a little bit too which in the case of "Coast Is Clear" worked out impressively. "Recess", "All Is Fair In Love And Brostep", "Stranger", and "Try It Out" are all pretty solid tracks and really the only ones even worth buying from the LP. The second half was massively overshadowed by excessive and unwarranted vulgarity, terrible vocal collaborations, and lackluster song structure and production. Skrillex provided us the side that many seems to cannot stand, rolling out ridiculously generic and terrible material in the second half of the LP which legitimizes the many claims of fans saying he is degrading the genre of EDM. You're certainly better off copping out better dance material from other guys like Kaskade than buying this debut record.
