solace

An incredibly dark and abstract EP that perfectly encapsulates hopelessness.

"solace" is a short, 10-minute, one-track EP from Earl Sweatshirt that he made during a very low point in his life. Earl's vocal performance and flow here is very clumsy which works incredibly well for the sound of this project. The instrumentals here are lo-fi, jazzy, and sometimes distorted, and they perfectly fit the tone of the project. My favorite aspect of this EP though is the lyricism, which is dark, incredibly well-written, and very upfront. I easily found Movement II to be my favorite part of this EP due to the amazing production and lethargic vocal performance, with easily the most depressing lyrics on the project. This part filled me with absolute dread like very few projects have before.

However, I also love Movement III which sort of sounds like a calm during the storm, with its relaxing and lo-fi instrumental. Though it still has a hint of sadness throughout it. I found my least favorite part of this project to be Movement V, which is the final one. It's not bad by any means, but it's definitely not as interesting as the others. It's just an instrumental that reminds me tonally of the one in Movement III, but it's just not as atmospheric or creative to me as that one was. I also don't like how this project just abruptly ends on a sudden fade-out, but it's not a huge deal. I still really do like this Movement and found it to be a nice way to close out this depressing EP. There wasn't any moment here I'd say was bad or even mediocre, I really enjoyed everything on "solace".

Overall, "solace" is an incredibly sad and depressing EP, filled with creative ideas, interesting instrumentals, clumsy yet great vocal performances, rough production that works really well for the sound of this EP, and some amazing lyricism. I really found myself loving this and I recommend checking this out.
-----------------------------------------------------
FAVORITE PART: Movement II
LEAST FAVORITE PART: Movement V
-----------------------------------------------------