‘Blanket’ is the moody new record by Kevin Abstract, a sometimes-minimalist project bathed in vulnerability and boasting a defined essence of melancholia and reflection. Coming nearly one year after the final BROCKHAMPTON album, ‘TM’, this new record from Abstract marks his first solo venture since the end of the band. ‘Blanket’ will clearly attract the lion’s share of BROCKHAMPTON fans, but where this record shines is in its absence of hip-hop, and in its embrace of genres Abstract has yet to toy with this heavily. It casts fuzzy guitars and pitched vocals in leading roles, providing a raw live concert feel – though Abstract ensures the tracks retain the hard-hitting nature of his hip-hop background.
What makes ‘Blanket’ thrive and pulse is its completely commitment to unrelenting honesty and vulnerability from Abstract. He runs through the record naked, speaking odes on his identity, atop of some gloriously fuzzy riffs, synthesisers and drums. The Texan polymath cultivates a visceral world on ‘Blanket’, the track list a diverse conglomeration of grunge, bittersweet ballads, pop and hip-hop. The record is at its best when noisy and scrappy, nineties West Coast undertones the thread throughout – the dynamic ‘The Greys’ sparse but still thrashing and heavy, ‘Today I Gave Up’ downtempo but oozing that Pacific Northwest emo tonality.
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Though between the rock sensibilities, Abstract’s knack for the subtle shines brightly on penultimate cut ‘Heights, Spiders and The Dark’, a brooding, country-tinted moment with a healthy dose of expansive sub-basses. Though the tracks on ‘Blanket’ may not see the virality of previous material like the Dominic Fike-bolstered ‘Peach’, Abstract’s writing across this new record is some of his most assured and confident to date, with the phenomenal Romil Hemnani (also of BROCKHAMPTON fame) and multi-instrumentalist Jonah Abraham lending their skills to the creation of ‘Blanket’.
Remaining true to form, Abstract retains his genre-less but directed appeal, this new LP an incredible effort and easily his greatest opus to date. While the bulk of his hip-hop flair has been thrown to the side on this project, his voyage into guitar-based territory was clearly a fantastic move, Abstract sounding as comfortable and infallible as ever. As his first solo outing since the denouement of BROCKHAMPTON, Kevin Abstract’s newest studio album continues to assert him as one of the greatest talents of this generation, an individual who eliminates conformity and remains earnest and candid, regardless of the sonic environment he visits.
8/10
Words: James Mellen
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