Whereas Lip Critic had been touring their 2024 debut album Hex Seller throughout the U.S., vocalist Brett Kaser’s banking data was stolen by an obsessed fan. After noticing that one of many gadgets bought was the whole Lip Critic discography on Bandcamp, Kaser was later confronted by the fan at one in every of their reveals, who claimed to have decoded hidden messages of their music. Reasonably than report the thief, the band interviewed him on his theories, utilizing them—in methods they haven’t absolutely elucidated—for his or her new file, Theft World.
“I might promote my soul simply to have that factor I can’t pin down,” barks Kaser on “Drumming With Izzy.” His confetti-blast lyrics cowl all types of thievery: Shoplifting, the predatory playing business, his coronary heart being stolen. However this line actually captures the way it feels attempting to make sense of this inscrutable and slippery album, which without delay appears like a thief evading seize and an impenetrable vault.
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You could possibly say it’s an album in regards to the dynamic between numerous thieves and their numerous marks, however Theft World’s labyrinthine lyric sheet feels designed to confound. Past the comically clear-cut soak up “Shoplifting,” the place God informs a Gatorade-stealing youngster, “You’re not attending to heaven,” Theft World’s victims are sometimes made complicit. The gambler in “Jackpot” implies some shared duty with the predators draining their account as they “spin the wheel with a dying urge,” simply because the financially ruined speaker in “Debt Forest” acknowledges that in having “misplaced management” they basically stole from themselves.
Kaser’s masterstroke is in compounding these questions of company along with his deft writing fashion—there are motifs of holes, bottles, and explosions. The speaker in “Debt Forest” appears like they might be the protagonist from the previous observe “Jackpot.” There’s a tantalizing sense the file may need some linear narrative, in case you may simply determine tips on how to put the items in the suitable order. The songs teem with half-drawn characters that delight on this similar obfuscation. “You threw the papers within the deep fryer,” Kaser declares in “Talon,” “cranked up at 388!”
Theft World’s music displays that shiftiness via writhing collages of hardcore, glitch-pop and industrial. At a look, it resembles the gritty, metallic sound of Mandy, Indiana’s URGH, however this album is extra of a visit to the fairground than Berghain. It’s fast-paced and brightly coloured, in decisions just like the bouncing sawtooth synths in “Two Lucks,” doo-wop backing vocals in “Legs In a Snare,” and slot machine burbles in “Jackpot.” Kaser’s voice, much less reliant on results than on Hex Seller, contorts into tones variously resembling Danny Brown and Gilla Band’s Dara Kiely.
However this twisting, agitated file generally reveals a softer facet. “Shoplifting” and “200 Bottles On Eviction” have plaintive choruses, backed by sustained organs. The ecstatic “Jackpot” closes with Kaser singing dejectedly over a gentle, pulsing synth melody of “these emotions you swallow down.” These flashes of melancholy or craving give the file complexity and depth, in addition to stopping it from devolving into wackiness.
There’s additionally a romantic thread: “You’re the hell that I made for myself,” Kaser cries on “Two Lucks,” punctuating his tales about stealing with fleeting depictions of unfulfilling relationships. Is he suggesting that these relationships symbolize a sort of theft—stealing time and self-worth? Is it a play on having his coronary heart “stolen”? The questions immediate fascinating reflections on romance and possession: what it means to take or lose maintain of somebody’s consideration, and the unhealthiness that dynamic can breed. That is one of the simplest ways to strategy the album—as an impressionistic work that rewards the questions and concepts it stirs, moderately than a puzzle demanding an answer. Its knotted discussions of company and morality take a backseat to how alive its characters really feel on this illicitly thrilling world.