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Author: David Robison

  • 5.0: (king)Ichabod by Leave Nelson B

    5.0: (king)Ichabod by Leave Nelson B

    Album: 5.0: (king) Ichabod

    Artist: Leave Nelson B

    Released: July 25, 2025; Lonely Ghost Records

    I was first introduced to Leave Nelson B via his collaboration on the album “Nelson Comes To Visit”. If you were fallowing the blog at the end of last year, you know that I am a huge fan of that particular album. When I learned that Leave Nelson B was dropping a new album I was very keen to give it a listen. My reasoning was two fold: First, I couldn’t imagine a world where this new album wasn’t good. Second, I kind of wanted to see what Leave Nelson B is like outside of a Superdestroyer collaboration. I know what you are thinking, Leave Nelson B has a pretty well established discography of something like 6 albums, you could have been listening to those this entire time. I won’t confirm nor deny if I have listened to his other stuff because that really ruins the bit I have chosen to lean into for this intro.

    The album starts off with the track “Take Off Day (The Merrier ‘Milk Drinker’)”. It’s a one minute bop. The vocals are smooth and the cheering that accompanies the track kind of makes you feel like you are watching a stage show. It’s a great addition to the song. The track as a whole is literally something you can set to infinitely repeat and easily get lost in for hours. It’s that mesmerizing.

    I also want to give a shout out to Abskull who is the featured vocalist on “Antipode Ego”. The rapping that Abskull provides really helps break up the album which, up until this track, has been more about crafting vibes rather than focusing on delivering a ‘traditional’ vocal performance. You get a little taste just enough to want more, then we are off to the next track. It’s enticing.

    The rest of the album pretty much matches the first track’s game. The songs are short and sweet. I know I have said this before of stuff that Leave Nelson B has worked on, but god damn the atmosphere that his music crafts is uncanny. I really can’t gush over this fact enough. This is straight up put it on and just vibe music. It is something I never really thought I needed in my life but recently I have just really come to respect and enjoy it.

    “5.0: (king) Ichabod” is a must listen to for Electronica fans but really anyone if you ask me. It’s 12 minutes of absolute vibes and atmosphere. If you ever just need to lock in and get some low intensity stuff done this is the album to put on. Lo-fi beats to study to- more like Leave Nelson B to study to.

    If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—> Purchase 5.0:(king) Ichabod by Leave Nelson B digitally via Amazon Music

  • Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost by How I Became Invisible

    Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost by How I Became Invisible

    Album: Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost

    Artist: How I Became Invisible

    Released: April 25, 2025; Anthropic Principle Records

    It is very hard to me right now not to claim that How I Became Invisible is my favorite band, but picking a favorite band to me is like trying to pick your favorite child. They are each unique, cool and bring meaning to your life in their own special way. So instead, I will just say that How I Became Invisible’s 2023 release “better or the next best thing” meant a lot to me so I was absolutely stoked when “Everything Not saved Will Be lost” dropped. Emily Reed is an amazing song writer who puts her heart into every song. I could simply not wait to dive into this release.

    The album starts off with the song “Make It A Good Ending” and really sets the stage for the album. It is chalked full of sci-fi imagery. This absolutely continues throughout the rest of the album to great effect. The literal end of the world has never sounded so eerily hopeful.

    The break out song of the album has to be “Biblically Accurate Arby’s Witch”. The synth on this song goes so hard in such a specific way; it is hard to not wonder if Motion City Soundtrack at least in part, did not inspired this song. It’s an upbeat high energy love song, which I can’t say has ever been my jam, but this one just hits. I think it perfectly captures the joy and longing of being perfectly completely in love. I get wildly happy just listening to it.

    The next song I really feel I need to give accolades to is “This is not a Place of Honor”. The atmosphere presented by this song is thicker than that of Venus. I said earlier the the first track was chalked full of sci-fi imagery, well this song is like that as well but for sci-fi vibes. It’s technically not an instrumental as there are two kinds of vocalizations in the song. First, there are barely audible vocals that sound like radio transmissions from something that was lost long ago. Then, Emily adds faint scream like vocalizations towards the end of the song. Both are pretty incomprehensible and when combined with the instrumentation, really create the feeling of insolation and dread. Now here is the creepy part: while the transmissions are hard to understand, when listening to track, they are listed in the lyric sheet of the album (at least on Bandcamp). I am not going to spoil what they say here but I do suggest you look them up after listening to the song a couple of times. It really adds to the haunting vibes when you find out after the fact that the message you didn’t understand and likely ignored was in fact a warning. This is, in my humble opinion, is peak storytelling within the medium.

    The last song I feel needs mentioned is “You Are (Not) The Problem”. It is just a really solid trans resistance anthem that succeeds at being both a bop that makes you want to move your feet and a fight song that makes you want to stand up and fight. The choir piece at the end is the cherry on top.

    “Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost” is a fantastical romp through space. It tells a story of impeding doom and the will to continue to not only fight in the face of devastation, but love in spite of it all. It is the message we need these days and having it set to a ripping Pop-punk soundtrack makes it even better. Everyone should definitely check it out if they haven’t already.

    If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—> Purchase Everything Not Saved Will be Lost by How I Became Invisible digitally via Amazon Music