What Could Possibly Go Wrong / Dominic Fike / July 31, 2020
- Joshua Yoo
- Aug 11, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 13, 2020
Despite staying somewhat under the radar, Dominic Fike accumulated a lot of anticipation for his debut studio album, mostly by way of his notable appearances with some of the industry’s biggest names. And while he has been fronting an intriguing and unique style to the music scene, Dominic fails to establish much of any distinctive and substantive musical content in nearly the entirety of this debut project.
While there are a few moments of interesting ideas and well-composed passages, in general the production across multiple tracks lacks direction and focus, often coming across as random, disjointed structures (“Florida”) or fleeting, semifinished concepts (“10x Stronger”). His voice fluctuates greatly across the track-list, experimenting with his vocals’ pitch and tremolo, and not only do certain versions of these vocals make their songs hard to digest (“Joe Blazey”, “Wurli”), but also in general it makes it difficult for listeners to gather a recognizable, attachable vocal style from this collection of songs.
The brevity of this project goes hand-in-hand with the thematic cohesiveness on this album, or lack thereof. With 14 songs only logging at 34 minutes, it can’t be helped but question whether certain tracks could have used more thought or deliberation. In both the concepts and execution behind the songs, it all seems constructed rather carefree or mindless, where the unusually short lengths or confusingly jumbled structural compositions don’t allow Dominic’s lyrical ideas and stories to play out as effectively as they could.
This is not to say that he shouldn’t be an artist to watch for in the future, as he doubtlessly has the creativity and talent to produce. But rather than an answer, his first album effort only leaves a greater question as to who he is and what to expect from his artistry.
Best Track(s): Vampire, Politics & Violence
Lowlight(s): Come Here, Joe Blazey, Wurli, 10x Stronger, Cancel Me
SCORE: 3/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIGilAUVeq0
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