Lucy Bedroque's c Has Every Sound in the World. Somebody Still Gotta Write the Song.

Let me say this upfront: I'm not one of those niggas who thinks rap stopped being rap the second somebody put a synthesizer through a blender. Young artists should be allowed to get weird. Lucy Bedroque's c is clearly trying to break out of the little box people put underground digital music in. What I don't buy is the idea that being hard to categorize automatically means the music is hard. Sometimes it's inventive. Sometimes it's just a lot of noise.

The official album is 15 tracks, coming out of the deadAir world into a bigger distribution situation. 'ALL SPEAKERS GO TO HEAVEN,' 'THE 9TH CIRCLE,' 'SPEED DEMON,' 'C SECTION,' 'SAFESPACE' and 'ERASE YOUR SOCIAL' sound like six different invitations to an internet that's been on fire for five years. The documented approach moves through rap cadences, blown-out electronics, falsetto and even attempts at metalcore-style vocals. I respect somebody taking those chances. But every change in texture needs to do something beyond showing me it can happen.

An effect isn't a hook

The outside criticism makes an interesting distinction. 'ERASE YOUR SOCIAL' and 'THE 9TH CIRCLE' have been singled out for having identifiable groove or atmosphere beneath the distortion. 'OROCHIMARU' gets criticized for reaching toward a more predictable payoff while the mix stays busy. That difference is basically the heart of what I care about: you can turn every knob in the studio and still need to write a record somebody remembers after the speakers stop shaking.

And there is a real audience for this. Live crowds can turn a huge drop into the most important thirty seconds of the night. I won't talk down to that. But I don't review an album strictly by imagining teenagers losing their minds at a show. What works with a thousand people yelling along isn't always what survives when you play the whole project on your own. Even the official tracklist's movement from 'SPEED DEMON' to quieter or more atmospheric ideas is only useful if those differences create actual songs.

A lot of critics hear a fully developed world here. I think the more revealing possibility is that the world is developing faster than the writing. That's not a career-ending statement, either. Somebody this young can figure out how to make the strange production support a clearer emotional point instead of having the production stand in for one.

6IXTV verdict — 5.3 / 10 (provisional)

Middle-of-the-road research-based 5.3: genuine ambition, distinct presentation, and specific songs with documented strengths, but a real question about hooks, clarity and sensory overload. I have not completed an independent full-album listen, so I'm not selling this as my headphone diary. The standard doesn't change because the music is experimental. We still gotta judge the song.