brakence - marroW

After reviewing the first three singles for marroW, I was disappointed by how little brakence’s sound had evolved. After brakence’s almost four-year absence, I had expected a greater change in his sound. I thought “ready or noT,” “Death rolL,” and “crystallized” were all decent songs, but I had just expected more. This lowered my expectations for the album and made me a bit less excited for it. I decided to wait until a bit closer to the album’s release to listen to the last three singles. The later singles restored some of my enthusiasm, but I was still skeptical.

marroW, brakence’s third album, runs for sixty-eight minutes across eighteen tracks. This is his longest album to date, which might have been an ambitious mistake. The album cover is a great representation of the mysteriousness of this album, with the unknown creature at the forefront stabbing brakence in the back.

The album opens with “madeleine,” a track that builds into the abrasive glitch-pop sound brakence is known for while keeping his vocals prominent. The track is a steady indicator of what is to come from marroW without giving away brakence’s tricks too soon.

“Death rolL” is a track that recalls the sound of brakence’s previous album, Hypochondriac. He raps confidently over glitchy drums before the beat shifts to give his singing more room. The song offers little evolution until its final forty seconds, when distorted vocals cut through a heavy guitar-driven instrumental.

One of the later singles, “Problem Child,” is driven by a catchy distorted riff and a pre-chorus and chorus that sit nicely in your ears. This track feels like a love letter to his previous works, refining familiar elements into a well-rounded song, even if it is not one of this album’s standouts.

“wishing well” is arguably the most pop-driven song on this record; while it is catchy, I feel that in the context of most of the rest of the album, it disrupts the album’s flow. It makes me question whether the album has a cohesive direction or simply feels like a collection of tracks recorded during his hiatus.

On “guessworK,” the keyboard part provides the most life, but it is buried beneath a vocal performance that feels too familiar. The track boxes brakence in, leaving little room for experimentation.

Upon first listen, “jesteR” seemed like an impressive track that was different than the previous five. After repeated listens, though, I feel the song falls flat before it even reaches the halfway mark. Between the awkward reverb and the “Corrupting the kids” line that repeats way too much, I can no longer remember what initially made it stand out.

“tougH” is abrasive and at points tough to listen to. Vocally, the song is all over the place. The chorus is incredibly hard to listen to or even take seriously because of the grating melody.

“ready or noT,” the first released track, filled the void left by the past few years without new brakence music, showcasing his incredible vocal ability and musicianship. The song is all over the place, super distorted and rambunctious, briefly quieting before plunging back into the chaos. As a single, the song felt more interesting. In the context of the album, it blends in.

“body” offers a stripped-back palate cleanser after the preceding chaos. The bass line stands out among the other instruments in the mix, providing a beautiful rhythm that blends with brakence’s singing creatively.

“sinkflY,” like many other tracks, does close to nothing for the first half of the song before kicking into high gear and giving listeners a reason to return to it. The last forty seconds of “sinkflY” feel cinematic and full of life, with the droning distortion from the guitar and the eerie atmospheric noises. Even with that, the song’s slow start makes it feel like the trailers before a movie.

That movie is “bitE,” a track that holds my attention throughout. It shifts into a metal-influenced arrangement, and brakence’s varied vocal delivery separates “bitE” from the rest of the tracklist. This is easily the best song on the album, and possibly his best to date in any project.

With “Boss Fight,” brakence throws away the aesthetic he had just established with “bitE” and returns to a vocal-driven track that texturally feels more like a frolic in a field of flowers than a boss fight. The song actually gets worse the longer you listen; by the end, the repeated “yep” makes the ending feel stretched thin.

“crystallized,” the third single, pairs brakence’s signature clean guitar tone with his high falsetto. A fuller guitar sound then enters as he shifts to a groovier melody. Another missed opportunity for reinvention.

The spy movie atmosphere of “traitoR” does little to hold my attention. At points, the instrumental and vocal takes sound like they were made for a scene where you find out the supposed good guy is actually the main villain.

“heart” is a four-minute piano-driven ballad that adds to the runtime without giving the album a sense of forward movement.

I love a good interlude that develops an album’s sound; “Helene’s Solo” is not one of them. The song is almost two minutes of unrecognizable murmurs and an eerie instrumental that adds little to the album as a whole.

“do what you can” is a song that does nothing wrong but offers little that is fun or interesting. It extends the story, but sonically it is middle of the road for what brakence is capable of.

With the final track “With Or Without it,” brakence vocally portrays his emotions in an impressive way. The stripped-back arrangement gives his emotional delivery room to stand out.

Despite standouts like “bitE,” marroW disappointed me overall: too much of its sixty-eight-minute runtime felt repetitive or slow to develop. I recommend you check out “bitE,” my favorite song from the album, and also his previous projects. For me, marroW earns a 4/10.