Zavier Pike
After an almost unheard burst of momentum with nearly 1 million monthly listeners after its first full year, it seems many people’s attention has been grabbed. As thrown seemingly keep up an unrelenting pace with Unwanted, with a ramped up tour schedule and more music videos than you can throw money at, the scene seems more polarised than ever on a new artist. Stemming from rumours of industry plants and nepotism, this record directly claps back at nay-sayers and skeptics alike. Unwanted directly opens the door for this conversation to be had, as let’s be honest, Lundqvist doesn’t half mention it.
Like a red rag to a bull, the record kicks off with ‘critic’, which sets the precedent for both the musicality and lyrical content of the next 20 minutes or so. Immediately it becomes apparent that Lundqvist takes inspiration from somewhere between early Fred Durst and Jesse Pinkman. There are truly enjoyable moments where you find yourself grooving with the phrasing of both the riffs and the lyrical cadence, and the polished spin on this style of nu-metalcore is genuinely interesting at times. However, as you allow yourself to sink deeper into the hook’s grip and the lyrics once again start registering, you are shunted back to reality with what can only be described as the sonic equivalent of operating a bidet in the arctic circle. This song alone is a clap-back at rumours that the band has been plagued with over recent times, such as that they are an industry plant and or are riding off the back of drummer Buster Odeholm’s name and connections. It is hard to ignore with their extremely rapid rise to the top and feature in every remotely alternative streaming playlist ever conceived. Thou that protest too much…
The next few songs consist of one new release, spanning less than two minutes, and two previously released singles. These all do not stray from the same repetitive formula, and once again it becomes difficult to really get into the meat of each song as there is such a lack of substance. The only thing worth talking about is the angsty teen lyrics that give off a sense of self-loathing and lack of self esteem that would make the most attention-seeking tryhards cringe. This is much the same for the rest of the record until the final track ‘subpar’, which diverts from the same formula with a slightly more aggressive style juxtaposed with the trap beat that runs throughout, but again the song is really far too short to actually have much substance to it.
At best this is an album of polished samples or demos of half a track idea. This directly plays into the rumours that this band just makes music for social media and streaming algorithms. In their defence, AI or a woefully underpaid ghostwriter with no sense of rhythm or cadence would write more insightful lyrics so it has to be somewhat original The silver lining is, this album has given us all an in-scene-dating red flag to put on our hinge profiles and an opportunity for us to all look in the mirror and ask: do I think this is cool? If the answer was yes and you’re over the age of 19, have a word with yourself.