Best Wishes... by blue hydrangea // Album Review

You can download the album here: https://bluehydrangea.bandcamp.com/album/best-wishes

Rating: 90/100

It's late on a friday night and I've got nothing to do except stare out the tiny window in my shitty apartment and glare out into the cold winter moonlight. I puff on an e-cigarette and search the Cyberverse for new, obscure sounds to fill my head and potentially uplift my digital depersonalization. I come up on Best Wishes... by blue hydrangea, an unknown artist to the Vaporwave scene, although I am very glad to have found him and I would recommend checking out some of his other releases on his bandcamp website (https://bluehydrangea.bandcamp.com/music).

The album artwork was what first attracted me. A single snapshot of a naked woman lying on top of a man who is mostly unseen except for his hairy legs. She stares back into the camera with a sly smirk and an inebriated facial expression that resonated into my soul. I felt compelled to listen to this strange, mysterious encounter and was greatly satisfied.

What you will find in this album is a bizarre retelling of a past experience. There is a sense of obsession or infatuation that is prominent in this release. The girl on the cover is essentially every teenaged boy's wet dream. It's hard to say what story is within this album, but from I've gathered, it seems almost like a bizarre, guilt-ridden sex fantasy. I found myself entering the depths of something very personal and heart-breaking. We have all had that one person who we've fantasized or glamorized so much to the point where we don't even see them as a real person anymore. They are almost like a god. Too perfect to touch. We want nothing but to be with them, and would give anything for them to feel a fraction of what we felt. But sadly, they rarely do.

In tracks like "the loser" you hear dissonant rhythms and melodies that harmonize every once in a while into a lonely, broken refrain. It slowly discombobulates throughout the album and leaves you on a cliff hanger towards the end with "aftermath", as it finishes off with a build-up similar to an EDM song, then immediately cuts off, making you feel empty and dissatisfied.

Overall, I highly recommend this release. There is so much mystery and ambiguity in this album that it completely enveloped me into a narrative that I think a lot of people can find something in it to relate to. Check it out.

-Wolfenstein OS X