Backxwash - I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES ALBUM REVIEW
Horrorcore is making a massive comeback, and I will be a full supporter of it.
I’ve spoken about Zambian-Canadian rapper Ashanti Mutinta, better known as Backxwash, on here once, but her impact has already been felt not just through my music taste but through a major award. Honestly, she caught my attention when she said that Nine Inch Nails’ “Reptile” has a hip-hop influence, but that’s neither here nor there. Her breakout album, God Has Nothing to Do with This Leave Him Out of It, won her 2020’s Polaris Prize. I spoke about that already in my review of that album, but it’s worth mentioning here. With winning that award, her profile only grew. This was shown during the lead up to the release of this album, the highly-anticipated I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES. She started off naming her collaborators for this album: Ada Rook (who also mastered the entire album), noise producer Lauren Bosfield, Speedy Ortiz vocalist/poet Sadie Dupuis, Code Orange members Eric ‘Shade’ Balderose and Jami Morgan under the name Nowhere2run, guitarist Michael Go, and the one that personally was the most exciting to me: the producers behind clipping., Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. When the title track with Rook dropped, it quickly became one of my favorite songs of this year so far and put this album right at the top of albums I was anticipating most. Now that we have this intro out of the way, let’s (finally) get into I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES.
Right off the bat, I’m just gonna say this: I’m not gonna spoil every single thing about this album, and I’ll get into why at the end. The first track we hear is called “PURPOSE OF PAIN,” and it’s very telling for the project as a whole. It’s a clip of a therapist or it could just be a lecture at a college (I’m not entirely sure), and it’s speaking about, well, the purpose of pain. This clip argues that it’s to get attention and receive protection from that pain, healing it in the process. The quote that stood out to me was that ‘a little bit of pain is a good thing.’ That’s a bit of a mantra for the project as a whole, but for this, I’m gonna highlight some of the biggest moments here. First off, the production on “666 IN LUXAXA” is nasty as fuck. Granted, the production on damn near all of this is great. It’s some of the most spine-chilling and hype stuff I’ve heard this year and it has to be heard to be believed. Sad13’s contribution to “SONG OF SINNERS” is absolutely chilling, and I definitely need to check out more of her work. Last, but not least, is “BLOOD IN THE WATER,” the clipping. produced track. It’s the shortest song on here, but it certainly makes its presence known with Backxwash’s primal shouts of ‘BLOOD IN THE WATER’ throughout.
I’d love to get more in depth and talk about the general concept of this project, but I’m gonna keep this a surprise so you can experience it for yourself. To keep it simple, I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES is a horrific masterpiece. The theme of finding comfort in pain is something that’s not often explored in modern music, especially in rap, so this is a pretty refreshing album from such a refreshing artist in music like Backxwash. I might have to mull over this being my favorite rap album of the year so far, but this will definitely be in my end-of-year list come December/January. Keep pioneering, Backxwash. I’ll be there for literally every single thing you drop.
9/10
Listen here
https://linktr.ee/backxwash
I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES is an UglyHag release.
A.N.: I’d like to extend a very special thank you to Backxwash for providing an early press copy of I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES. It’s an honor to work with such a trailblazing and innovative artist working right now, and I wish you the best.
I’ve spoken about Zambian-Canadian rapper Ashanti Mutinta, better known as Backxwash, on here once, but her impact has already been felt not just through my music taste but through a major award. Honestly, she caught my attention when she said that Nine Inch Nails’ “Reptile” has a hip-hop influence, but that’s neither here nor there. Her breakout album, God Has Nothing to Do with This Leave Him Out of It, won her 2020’s Polaris Prize. I spoke about that already in my review of that album, but it’s worth mentioning here. With winning that award, her profile only grew. This was shown during the lead up to the release of this album, the highly-anticipated I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES. She started off naming her collaborators for this album: Ada Rook (who also mastered the entire album), noise producer Lauren Bosfield, Speedy Ortiz vocalist/poet Sadie Dupuis, Code Orange members Eric ‘Shade’ Balderose and Jami Morgan under the name Nowhere2run, guitarist Michael Go, and the one that personally was the most exciting to me: the producers behind clipping., Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. When the title track with Rook dropped, it quickly became one of my favorite songs of this year so far and put this album right at the top of albums I was anticipating most. Now that we have this intro out of the way, let’s (finally) get into I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES.
Right off the bat, I’m just gonna say this: I’m not gonna spoil every single thing about this album, and I’ll get into why at the end. The first track we hear is called “PURPOSE OF PAIN,” and it’s very telling for the project as a whole. It’s a clip of a therapist or it could just be a lecture at a college (I’m not entirely sure), and it’s speaking about, well, the purpose of pain. This clip argues that it’s to get attention and receive protection from that pain, healing it in the process. The quote that stood out to me was that ‘a little bit of pain is a good thing.’ That’s a bit of a mantra for the project as a whole, but for this, I’m gonna highlight some of the biggest moments here. First off, the production on “666 IN LUXAXA” is nasty as fuck. Granted, the production on damn near all of this is great. It’s some of the most spine-chilling and hype stuff I’ve heard this year and it has to be heard to be believed. Sad13’s contribution to “SONG OF SINNERS” is absolutely chilling, and I definitely need to check out more of her work. Last, but not least, is “BLOOD IN THE WATER,” the clipping. produced track. It’s the shortest song on here, but it certainly makes its presence known with Backxwash’s primal shouts of ‘BLOOD IN THE WATER’ throughout.
I’d love to get more in depth and talk about the general concept of this project, but I’m gonna keep this a surprise so you can experience it for yourself. To keep it simple, I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES is a horrific masterpiece. The theme of finding comfort in pain is something that’s not often explored in modern music, especially in rap, so this is a pretty refreshing album from such a refreshing artist in music like Backxwash. I might have to mull over this being my favorite rap album of the year so far, but this will definitely be in my end-of-year list come December/January. Keep pioneering, Backxwash. I’ll be there for literally every single thing you drop.
9/10
Listen here
https://linktr.ee/backxwash
I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES is an UglyHag release.
A.N.: I’d like to extend a very special thank you to Backxwash for providing an early press copy of I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES. It’s an honor to work with such a trailblazing and innovative artist working right now, and I wish you the best.
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