never knows best is the new sophomore project by Grammy nominated producer and artist boyband. The project’s title is inspired by the words that FLCL character Mamimi Samejima wrote on her cigarette. Throughout the project, boyband does a great job of taking from more obscure influences such as anime and more conceptual themes and putting a catchy and more mainstream spin on them.
In this project, boyband took significant artistic steps forward from his previous album, alone in a boyband. He took his sound in a more poppy direction while still keeping the punk elements and he has continued to improve as a songwriter. In addition, the modern trap elements that are seen in never knows best are much more pronounced and at the forefront than they were in his previous project.
Boyband uses the freedom that came with his second project to explore different directions. The first song, “stitches”, features a reverb-heavy guitar loop where boyband talks about some of the more serious problems he is dealing with such as insomnia and not eating right. In some songs, such as “birth by sleep” and “how 2 say ur in love”, he takes a more punk inspired direction, ditching the trap drums and turning up the distortion while still keeping the catchy hooks and melodicism found in the rest of his music.
Listen to never knows best below
In others, such as “irl”, “close”, and “hold me over”, he returns to an emo-trap sound, complete with hi hats and lyrics pertaining to relationships and regrets. The closing track, “jordan year”, takes an entirely different direction as boyband experiments with an old-school boom bap style of production. All of these production choices and different styles complement the individual songs and help to keep the listener interested throughout the runtime.
In conclusion, never knows best is a very enjoyable album that meshes alternative, pop-punk, and trap in order to create a product that is very fun as well as interesting and meaningful. My favorite songs from the project are “birth by sleep” and “close”.
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