Worlds

Hi everyone. So basically, it's 1AM at the time of my writing this. I probably should've been asleep hours ago, given that I have school in just a few hours, yet I'm spending another late night up thinking about "Worlds". It's like there's been a constant feeling right in the back of my head for months now, almost a year, even. This account is almost a year old, meaning in total I've been on AOTY for over 2 years. Weird. At any rate, for anyone under the impression that I've "refused" to review this album or something like that, that's not really the case at all. While my true thoughts and feelings on this body of work remaining ambiguous has been nice, as it's given me time to think of and plan a review, I've been kicking around on this account for almost a year now, and still, nothing but "it's ok" fills this space. I want to try and fix that, at least for a little while, so bare with me as I attempt to put this album into words, even though I don't think my words could ever truly do this album justice. Porter Robinson's "Worlds" is my favorite album ever made. If you know me at all, there's a good chance you're already well aware of this. However, whenever talking about it at length, I've long since stated "It's not the best album; just my favorite", a statement I still wholeheartedly standby. But why? What makes "Worlds" my favorite album of all time, amongst over a thousand records?
Well, to put it in the simplest terms possible, "Worlds" is perfect for me. Every note, every burst of colorful synths, every breathtaking vocal passage, every sound, every song, every lyric, everything, everything, everything...

Whether taking into account its impeccable flow, spotless production, or its loose but nonetheless present conceptual core, everything about this clicks for me in ways that no other piece of music has ever come close to replicating. At the same time, though, it never feels too grand or massive in scope to ever lose that personal connection that I find to be such a necessity in my favorite albums. Its most impactful moments hit so hard for me that there are certain tracks that I only ever listen to on the rarest of occasions due to how overwhelmingly emotional some tracks make me. On the other end of the spectrum, this album's highs are so huge and so powerful that they still manage to blow me away no matter how many times I hear them. Whether it be the pulsating synths and heavenly vocal mixing on "Divinity", the larger than life chorus on "Hear The Bells", or the utterly flawless climax of the record that is "Fellow Feeling", this album's highest moments reach a point where I almost struggle to put them to words, despite the relatively simple and easy to understand nature of the instrumentation. On top of this, Porter still manages to show off his love of Japanese culture and video games in a way that doesn't feel at all tacky or like it takes away from the experience in any aspect. I admire the clear passion that he put into this project, and the way that these elements come together to form such an otherworldly experience is just a small part of what makes this album such a miracle in my eyes. It feels too unbelievably spectacular to even be real, and yet, it is.

Of course, no review of this album would be complete without a mention of the tenth track here, "Sea of Voices". This, simply put, is the greatest song ever made in my eyes. I have never and likely will never experience anything quite like it again. It starts off simple but it comes together in a way so unbelievably perfect that I struggle to think that a human being made this song. That's not even an exaggeration. It is the most perfect thing to ever exist, and I'm convinced that this was gifted down to us from the heavens. This is the best thing to ever exist.

"We'll see creation come undone / these bones that bound us will be gone.
We'll stir our spirits till we're one, then soft as shadows we'll become."

There's a certain beautiful nostalgia that comes along with this music for me. Even though my time spent with it hasn't been very long in the grand scheme of things, it's easily the piece of music that I relate the most positive memories to. In spite of all that sucked about it, I really do miss 2021 sometimes. I miss hearing this album for the first time and talking for days after about it with my friend as we both waited anxiously for "Nurture" to come out, I miss watching the live performance of "Worlds" on my TV and sitting back in awe at how something so exceptional could even exist, and I miss the many, many walks home spent with this album. The sleepless nights, like this one, the tears shed, the memories made, and finally going to see him in concert and sitting up in the front row, screaming my heart out to a setlist of my favorite songs of all time. There's really and truly no replicating that, those are memories so close to my heart that I hope to hold onto them for the rest of my life, and when I'm old, listen through this once again and remember all the experiences I had with it. Then, my musical journey will have finally reached its completion. Really and truly, I don't know if "Worlds" is always gonna be my favorite album. There's so much music out there, and I'm still very young. At the end of the day, though, I don't really think it matters. When a piece of media resonates with you on the level that this one does, then whether or not anything ever beats it seems almost irrelevant, because those memories and that feeling I get every single time I hear this album will never go away, and y'know what? That's fine by me. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Thank you, I'll say goodbye now
Though it's the end of the world, don't blame yourself
And if it's true, I will surround you and give life to a world that's our own."

Perfection.