Style: Pop, Emo, Djent (Clean Vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: Canada
Release date: November 19, 2021
Yikes. They say not judge a book by its cover, but what if you take the title into consideration as well? What if an album is called Sad And Horny, and has a cheerful little boy on the cover? Surely I can judge that just by looking at it, I mean something is clearly not right there. Well, I gave Naevius the benefit of the doubt with Sad And Horny, my curiosity got the best of me. I decided to give it a listen to see if it is worthy of being judged at first glance. After all, there are plenty of amazing albums with off putting covers and/or titles.
I made a grave mistake, a burden that I will have to carry for the rest of my life. This album, it is surprisingly remarkable…in the worst way possible. I don’t think I have ever had the displeasure of hearing something so unnerving. Naevius, why have you done this? Surely it’s just a meme right? It’s just a meme. It’s just a meme. It’s just a meme. Maybe I can convince myself if I just keep saying it. Ok, maybe I’m being too harsh. Sad And Horny is an emo pop album, with djent and jazz fusion influence. It kind of sounds like if Olivia Rodrigo, MGK, and Post Malone tried to make a progressive metal record using only the knowledge they have collectively, and as an additional challenge they have to sing without moving their mouth or face.
Normally I would focus on the good parts of an album, then cover the bad parts afterwards, but Sad And Horny is a peculiar case, so I think it may be better to cover what makes the album so distressing first, then pick out the better pieces. The first and most notable issue with this album are the lyrics. They are completely uninspired, unnecessarily repetitive, and insanely cringy. A title track is meant to set a benchmark for an album so to speak, and usually they are very catchy. “Sad And Horny” is a poor attempt at a catchy title track. It’s obnoxiously repetitive, with lyrics that were likely stolen from a middle schoolers notebook, like “Your boyfriend is so boring, I’ve been so sad and horny” and “I just wanna smoke weed and play Halo”. What makes this worse is that the title track did set a standard for the album that every other song adhered to, resulting in song after song of laughable lyrics stuck on repeat.
The vocals are not quite as bad as the lyrics, but are kind of a mess as well. One of the reasons that I think Naevius might be meming is because he sounds like he is mocking pop/pop punk vocalists. If you are familiar with Jared Allonge saying “I would literally die for pop punk!” in a whiny voice, that is what the vocals sound like in the majority of Sad And Horny. The rest of the vocals sound like Naevius just got his wisdom teeth removed and he can’t open his mouth because of the pain.
It sucks that so much of this album is bad, because there are some pretty good guitar solos, and heavy djenty riffs too like in “Too Much”, but In addition to being overshadowed by the stinky stuff, most of the guitar work is pretty weak in the mix.
I think this style could be a great gateway into prog and metal if it’s executed well, so I applaud the ambition. I can’t say I have heard anything like it ever, but the sad truth is that Sad And Horny is not well executed. There is some potential here for sure, but I don’t think it was taken very seriously. Hopefully it isn’t meant to be taken seriously.
Recommended tracks: …
Recommended for fans of: Issues, MGK, Olivia Rodrigo
Final verdict: 3/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Label: AME Inc.
Naevius is:
– Naevius (Everything)
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