SMILE! :D

by

Porter Robinson

there's a weird kind of disappointment when an album comes out and it turns out the singles were definitely the best tracks on it. which is stupid, because the singles here are almost the entire A-side of the album, and it's not like the b-side is bad, it's in fact really good.

is there really no happiness? and year of the cup are the only non-single tracks which, for me, reach the level of the singles. i was really excited for mona lisa before listening because i adore frost children and wanted to hear porter put his 3OH!3 on but it turns out that it kind of sounds like neither of their music and instead sound like someone put OTT on some mall dance punk from 2007 and it's the only place on the record where i feel like the throwback sound doesn't work.

mona lisa also struggles in the same way as perfect pinterest garden in that it's too much of a retread, thematically, of earlier, better tracks like cheerleader and knock yourself out XD. in this way it kind of feels like porter had less to say about the subject of this record than he did on nurture, which is also funny because nurture is a longer record that has two instrumentals.

but like i said, the singles are still amazing, year of the cup and is there really no happiness? are also fantastic, easier to love you and everything to me are effective slower ballads that recall blossom and sweet time from nurture, and even though perfect pinterest garden isn't my favorite track it's still got a fun groove and it's never a skip for me.