It’s an album of standouts. These fluid tracks open up in ways that push them to some outer limit, all with a poppy sense of anticipation. Juke-y “Pop” eventually emphasizes the dancehall slap on every “3,” so that the song is restructured into a slouching death dance to look forward to. “Bass Rattle Stars Out the Sky” is a messy banger that could easily fill the space of an outside venue. The hook of “Hunger Games” is undeniable as it slides. “No Love” is “No Love.” 

“Come Up and Get Me” (wherein low synths are muted to a forcefully swinging effect) is special in offering a semi-clear storyline, where Ride holes up in an abandoned building evading a Nazi police force who he admits he can’t name. He’s an unreliable narrator who grazes in an underbelly and overflows with schizophrenic violence. This is the sucking-in point, and Ride’s words going forward spiral down, sometimes incomprehensible; ugly poetry (“feel me climbing under your stomach”) and antisocial shouts (“Fuck it!”). They’re what comes after being consumed by the corner pocket. 

It seems to work like this: You’re at the entrance of a cave, and Ride shouts for you to look away from whatever gross thing he’s doing. But you want to go further, and you want to join him, because if this sick beat is wrong then who would wanna be right? 

-taggedbypea