Review Summary: “Whoa, you’re wigging me out right now by trying to have a conversation. Chill vibes only brah.“ -the album
There’s nothing wrong with a little pastiche, but pastiche still needs to have its own identity to deserve revisits. It shouldn’t just rest on the laurels of previous work in the genre. Jazzy hypnagogic pop has the modern niche that easy listening had in the 1950s, but does that mean that it’s easy to make? Why leave an R out of “carry” in the song “Cary Me Back”? Too boring of a change to ring as effectively quirky, this song title decision still seems like an attempt at quirkiness, as if the album’s goal serves as an exercise in futility for the sake of chill vibes. Who is Mild High Club frontman Alexander Brettin? After listening to Skiptracing multiple times, I have absolutely no idea about his identity, what he stands for, or what he’s even trying to accomplish beyond whoa psychedelic chill vibes brah.
This pointlessness bleeds into the lyrics. So many of the songs drop lyrics about them being songs or about music’s comforting qualities. This works best on “Tessellation”, which explores Brettin’s appreciation for Steely Dan. While cool enough in concept, Steely Dan songs typically have points to them and “Tessellation” in execution mostly cobbles together muddled references to the band. While the title track possesses a catchy hook, the lyrics feel extremely vapid in a glaring way. “Can you sing to this harmony? Can you let a quartet set you free? This tonality doesn't disagree. Ought to be chromatically pleasin' me” Brettin croons sleepily. Thematically about trying to track his true self down with drugs as a confused detective, multiple songs talk about coins, memories, and feeling lost. No world salad verses, no strong symbolism, just “out on the lawn I'll be skipping tracing, chasing the person I seem.” Brettin’s introspections mimic Freshman-at-college high thoughts.
Musically, the album runs on autopilot more so than your typical hypnagogic pop, but a few highlights still exist. “Head Out” delivers the best music the album has to offer, as the jazz and psychedelic elements actually do things beyond just serving as mood setters. Backmasking and comparatively (to the rest of the album at least) intense saxophone do their best to grab you, though just barely. Brettin’s aim implies he wants the album to just exist as pleasant background music that won’t offend the tripping ear. Consistently decent bass tops the instrumentation, but the drums (except maybe on “¿Whodunit?”,) the guitar, and the electronics sound performed by AI. Innocuous vocals fill their role: to sound stoned and melancholic. The effervescent and lush production proves to be the one truly strong element of Skiptracing, fitting the concept perfectly and pleasantly. Soothing and light shouldn't have to mean completely toothless.
Skiptracing tries to capture a feeling of highness, and it probably does, but that doesn’t save it from its mind-numbingly uninspired sounding decisions. All psychedelic music ever borrows from the concept of capturing the feeling of psychedelic drugs, that’s the point Brettin! The conclusion to his little mystery teaches that drugs didn’t help him find himself, so I’m at least comforted that he feels as unsure of himself as I am of him. There’s an entire mound of bands in the hypnagogic pop genre, many of which created far more unique and interesting works, so why did this one become one of the more famous ones?
Album highlights: “Skiptracing” and “Head Out” I guess, but also not really.
