Ditz
Never Exhale


4.2
excellent

Review

by Mike Kaplan STAFF
February 10th, 2025 | 16 replies


Release Date: 01/24/2025 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Smells like something died in here.

I’ve never experienced a time in my life where I simply wasn’t interested in music. In the last month though, I had difficulty finding myself interested in anything. I’m not a nihilist, but it’s hard to not to question the point of existence in the face of the destruction that Mother Nature can wreak—and even in saying that, it’s hard to blame Mother Nature entirely. Weather patterns are easy to predict and fires go hand in hand with dry winds in Los Angeles, so it’s almost impossible that people didn’t know that one hundred mile per hour winds weren’t liable to cause a fire. But no, the reservoir in the Pacific Palisades was empty, power lines were left on, and over ten thousand structures burned to the ground.

How could it happen? It’s f*cking 2025. How can you try to improve the lives of the people you love or the world at large or even yourself, when we live in a system that is so broken that the single most destructive fire in the history of the United States of America just occurred at a time when we have more technology on how to prevent such a situation than we ever have? How can the leader of your city be in another country entirely, knowing the city she is responsible for is at severe risk of fire? How come the reservoir was empty? How come people aren’t allowed back to their homes as immediately as possible? How?

Do you see what I mean? I’m not trying to turn a review into an album into a dissertation on the failings of my local government or why fire is bad. I’m painting a picture of the mental state such a situation can leave a person in. What do you do? After weeks of nothing but the worst possible news and the most heart-wrenching stories imaginable, I found it hard to care about a lot of things. I was doing something about it from where I could, but there was a small part of me that had to ask—why bother?

Listening to Never Exhale was almost cathartic in a way. Sonically and thematically, I felt a strange sense of relief in embracing the inherent despair present in Ditz’s songwriting and lyrics. I don’t need to articulate what “post-punk noise blah blah” sounds like. You all know what it is. The main quality that makes this album memorable is the way it seesaws from peaceful to heated to despairing to desperately angry. From the first moment all the way through the final curtain drop, Never Exhale puts the listener in a choke hold and never lets go—and while it may not make you feel better, at least you know someone else feels the same way you do.

The effects, walls of noise, sharp changes in tonality and song structure are engaging and well-executed. Despite stretches of atmospheric passages and droning instrumentals, Never Exhale doesn’t ever feel boring. It is deliberate without being robotic, and creates an introspectively bleak mood throughout the record.

Layered on top of that moody atmosphere are small, attention-grabbing details that are (for the most part) excellently well-placed. While there are many, a couple of good examples include the beat at the beginning of “Taxi Man,” or the ending of “18 Wheeler” in which the track alternates between silence and chaotic tones. The closing track, “britney” blends all of it together, taking the listener on a seven minute journey through the soundscapes that covered the rest of the album.

All of that being said, however, while Never Exhale has the kind of potential to be one of those albums that defines the year, it never quite reaches the highs that it feels like it should. Aside from “britney,” the record has several stretches of feeling somewhat lost in its own attempts at being brilliant. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent album, it just doesn’t quite seem to rise up to the expectations it sets for itself.

All in all though, while I know it’s a bit cheesy or sentimental, I listened to Never Exhale in a time where I couldn’t bring myself to listen to anything, and I’m glad I did. The album blows the curtain back and shows you that some things are just f*cked, and leaves you open on how you want to deal with it. I know how I did.



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user ratings (23)
3.7
great


Comments:Add a Comment 
Manatea
Staff Reviewer
February 10th 2025


2172 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

One of my longest reviews. I apologize for using this as an outlet to vent further but I did. My first review of 2025, sorry for the delay

Hawks
February 10th 2025


97789 Comments


Very awesome review bro and most definitely gotta hear this.

tectactoe
February 10th 2025


8256 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Nicely done.

Great album. Immediately fell in love with "Taxi Man" and "Senor Siniestro" on first listen but have grown on just about all the others as well. Solid step up from THE GREAT REGRESSION imo. I hear hints of Liars and Girl Band in here, too, and I like it.

gabba
February 10th 2025


1952 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Album rips, agreed on the Liar & Girl Band vibes, but their sound is still refreshing somehow. Or have I just been depraved for long? Anyhow, good review, I dig the personal angle, I can relate.

tectactoe
February 10th 2025


8256 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah, no, you're right, they for sure have an identity of their own but I wouldn't be shocked to learn that they were big fans of THEY THREW US ALL IN A TRENCH or HOLDING HANDS WITH JAMIE. Singer's voice fits the music pretty perfectly, which helps.

DadKungFu
Staff Reviewer
February 11th 2025


5739 Comments


wholesome Manatea review mad intrigued by this

Cormano
February 11th 2025


4291 Comments


that closer tho

Manatea
Staff Reviewer
February 11th 2025


2172 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

Thanks for the love guys

Also yeah closer is legit

brainmelter
Contributing Reviewer
February 11th 2025


8464 Comments


good read, there’s a surprising amount of us from LA on here.

Taxt
February 11th 2025


1649 Comments


This sounds right up my alley, will check for sure!

Manatea
Staff Reviewer
February 12th 2025


2172 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

@brainmelter where you at in LA?

dawija1017
February 12th 2025


699 Comments


Sounds very inspired by Daughters - You wont get what you want, especially the song 'smells like something died in here'

XingKing
February 12th 2025


16235 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

The outro to Britney goes so hard

tectactoe
February 13th 2025


8256 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

"I'm forever stepping on snails in the rain

Whether I twitch at their crunch or their pain

It's all the same"



unironically this lyric goes hard

Hawks
February 13th 2025


97789 Comments


Gonna hit this up within the next few days.

Wildcardbitchesss
February 14th 2025


15173 Comments


Nice review, I’m def intrigued



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