Contemporary Review: Bladee - EXETER

Hey everybody! This will be my first contemporary review, which will basically just be some album/EP/mixtape from the same week or the week before. I’m changing the schedule now so contemporary reviews will come out on Tuesdays and throwback reviews on “throwback Thursday.”

Time to review our favorite Swedish auto-tune rapper Bladee. After two studio albums and three mixtapes, the auto-crooner artist releases a new mixtape: EXETER. Bladee has always stood out in his world of emo pop with his high-pitched voice and playful yet melancholy production (similarly represented on the cover art for this new mixtape). EXETER starts with a very lighthearted “hymn” giving the listener a taste of his famous auto-tune sound that his fans love so much. Wonderland starts the mixtape off strong, hitting hard with his signature sound with a weirdly catchy feature from ECCO2K. MERRY-GO-ROUND comes right after with a really strange chorus repeating the title of the track with a kind of lo-fi production. The mixtape’s production all around has a muddy bass, but doesn’t drown anything out since Bladee’s voice is purposely high-pitched, loud, and noisy. The mixing is definitely not crystal clear and a little fuzzy (which I can’t tell if is purposeful or lazy) but that’s not a surprising feature of a Bladee project. He utilizes fairly generic love lyrics, but despite the repetition, nothing gets too annoying. For sure, Bladee definitely has an audience, so if you like the niche high-pitched auto-crooning, this mixtape is definitely enjoyable. Transitioning the latter part of the mixtape, the first time I listened to OPEN SYMBOLS (PLAY) BE IN YOUR MIND, the weird beeps leading up to the chorus was weirdly enjoyable. When that repetitious chorus hit, it was quite good in my opinion (like it gave me that “stank” face that you get when you hear a really hard chorus or verse). ECCO2K also appears on the other very catchy tune LOVESTORY, and then the mixtape ends with a predictable outro IMAGINARY. Overall, I think Bladee didn’t disappoint; he just continued to do what he is known for and good at (not straying much from what he’s used to). However, still enjoyable and good music.

Good Album: 6.9

Favorite Tracks: OPEN SYMBOLS & LOVESTORY

Least favorite: EVERY MOMENT SPECIAL