The paradox of
Eversince is that Bladee’s indifference is engaging. His monotone vocals are the antithesis of colourful, seeping out in a pale gruel, utterly devoid of flair yet strangely appealing. Those who earnestly wear their heart on their sleeve tend to come off a tad contrived, whereas the apathetic melancholy Bladee stews in tells us a lot about him; he puts himself out there while making it sound like he isn’t. And there’s something intriguingly self-aware in framing your own introspections in such an understated way.
Although it’s not as if Bladee’s lyrics are crushingly insightful anyway. His lamentations are the sort of thing you might expect from a melodramatic teenager, flailing in the shallow end of the emotional spectrum in their listless despair. Which is why it’s fitting for them to be intoned in such a bland manner, because they really are that unspectacular. This has the result of leaving
Eversince in the strange position of being pretty meaningless but wonderfully aware it’s meaningless; allowing Bladee to juxtapose references of slit-wrists and suicide alongside run-of-the-mill codeine brags without being jarring. The cold blanket of auto-tune he smothers his vocals in helps too, making all his lyrics equal in their grey hue.
This weirdly results in the production being the liveliest part of
Eversince. It’s a vivid amalgamation of crystalline motifs, lucid in its clear-cut aesthetic, ringing out sharply against Bladee’s vocal monotony. It has a spacey quality without sounding washed out or bland, like colour in suspended animation, weightless and bright. Sometimes Bladee’s vocals are overwhelmed by the production’s dazzling brilliance, while other times it mellows out to match his drab attitude; resulting in some of the more boring moments of the record. Although, the sheer uniqueness of
Eversince goes a long way in making sure these moments are few and far between.
