Certainly the strongest AOTY contender thus far in 2025 after just about 4 months of the year have passed. As someone who gets hooked on energetic, upbeat music it is quite the surprise to fall in love with a very minimal, soft and fairly sparse record but here we are. First off is the synth work: absolutely beautiful textures, tones and usage of synths here. It is hard to imagine creating the atmosphere and feel of this album without the synth mastery here. Next up are the vocals. A great blend of natural melodies and vocal work with overproduced sections that reminisce on hyperpop. The song structure and composition is also worth mentioning as many of the songs aren't really driven by drums and bass as synth, trumpets and other instruments (sax, strings) take over the job while complimenting Oklou's unique vocals very, very well. 'ict', 'thank you for recording', 'harvest sky' and 'obvious' are top notch but there are very few blemishes here.
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