Review Summary: Another Issues album, another failure.
Issues's debut album wasn't exactly well-regarded by many. An awkward flavor of post-hardcore and pop mixed together, it had a hard time finding any solid ground. That said, there were a couple okay moments; it was pretty clear that the album could've been more tolerable (even if not good) if they had focused more on the heavy part of their sound and discarded much of the other stuff.
However, on their sophomore album, they do almost the exact opposite. Yes, this is still a heavy album; but there's way more pop flavor (among other things) on this one. The opening song (and lead single) "The Realest" should introduce you to much of what you're in for. Sloppy guitar riffs alongside an awkwardly poppy feel. I've never been a huge fan of Tyler Carter's singing, but it's just flat out cringeworthy on this song. The only other thing besides the guitars that still outs it as a "heavy" song is the occasional screaming (which there's less of on this album).
Much of the rest of the album is more of the same, occasionally adding different flavors of genres between the lines. For example, the awful "Yung & Dum" somehow manages to throw in a somewhat-country feel. "Flojo" has a bit more of hip-hop thrown in. And even with all of that, there's a couple songs that still feel like they could've come off the first album ("Blue Wall," "COMA").
Amidst all the chaos, there's not much of in the way of decent stuff to be found. There's a few songs that are just okay without being anything to write home about ("Lost-n-Found," "COMA," "Slow Me Down"). But there's other songs that are cringeworthy ("The Realest," "Yung & Dum," "Hero") or just flat out boring with very little going on at all in the first place to call okay or terrible ("Home Soon," "Made to Last"). Most of these songs are just sloppy, even when they're trying to be creative.
The lyrics are pretty ludicrous too. When they're not being angsty ("Someone Who Does") or all-too-political ("Blue Wall"), they're throwing out various random dumb lines. "The Realest" includes the line in the chorus, "I don't f*** with these mind games, babe." "Rank Rider" also uses the meme "Ain't nobody got time for that" as an actual lyric, which is unbelievably uninspired and probably the lowest they've ever gotten lyrically.
I guess I should give them some credit for at least trying to be creative now and then, but you still have to sound good when being creative. And Issues just doesn't. At least not on this album. I'm not sure if they're trying to get some more mainstream appeal (like every other metal band these days) or what, but whatever it was they were doing with this album, they failed and gave us a mess of an album that, while it may not be the worst thing I'll hear this year, still needs to be avoided. I would call it a sophomore slump, except they didn't have a good first album to slump from in the first place.
