
Brand new LP & the 5th overall from Los Angeles, California singer/songwriter, producer, YouTuber & rapper Quadeca. His earlier tapes Work in Progress, Nostalgia for the Now, Bad Internet Rapper & Out of Order were all received negatively as was the full-length debut Voice Memos although his sophomore effort From Me to You proved to be decent, with both I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You & Scrapyard under deadAir Records garnering widespread praise for artistically reinventing himself. He would form his own label X8 Music distributed by Virgin Music for his previous full-length Vanisher, Horizon Scraper & following it up with Life 1 merely 14 months afterwards.
The self-produced title track subtitled “Where Did the Time Go?” blends art pop, folktronica, indietronica, glitch pop, neo-psychedelia & UK bass to sing about life flying past us all whereas the lead single “Dark Magic” fuses alternative R&B, pop rap, alt-pop, bedroom pop, indietronica, lowend & drone metal to describe the relationship he has with his audience. “The Hero Never Dies” combines art pop, indietronica, toypop, bedroom pop, chamber pop asking why this person’s too down to look straight in his eyes while “It Goes Like This” colorfully sings about this same person potentially getting the gist of things by now.
“Make You My What” featuring kmoe after the “Celery” interlude hits the midway point of Life 1 discussing romantic commitment over some drums & strings but if I had to pick a least favorite track, the 2-parter “Regular Guy” would take the cake which is disappointing considering the themes of wanting to become a new person. After the “Gambler” interlude, “Like You Always Do” prominently employs the default Logic Pro metronome singing about a cult leader feeling targeted prior to the folk pop, chamber pop, progressive folk, chamber folk, art pop, bossa nova & breakbeat single “Baby Steps” tackles adulthood.
Dance-pop, electro, indietronica, pop rap, 2-step, art pop all collide for the 3rd single “Hell of a Time” looking at a breakup from a more introspective lens expressing that he still enjoyed the moments they spent together regardless of everything not panning out they way they hoped while “Illusion of a Choice” sings about his own experiences of battling suicide ideation & encouraging all to fight those thoughts instead of letting them consume you. “Good grief” mourns the death of someone he knew who tragically took their own life & how much his life’s changed since while “In another life…” concludes the album singing about reincarnation.
Quadeca has said Life 1 was the truest thing he’s ever made & there’s no question in my mind that it deserves the same respect the last 3 projects he’s dropped all received. His indietronica, alt-pop, art pop, bedroom pop, folktronica, alternative R&B, singer/songwriter, glitch pop, neo-psychedelia, UK bass, pop rap, lowend, drone metal, toypop, folk pop, chamber pop, progressive folk, chamber folk, bossa nova, breakbeat, dance-pop, electro & 2-step production extends his evolution with the themes of life & death being stemmed from his own experiences unlike I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You.
Score: 4.5/5
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