41. Porter Robinson, “Knock Yourself Out XD”
At what level does intense self-searching begin to really feel identical to navelgazing? This appears to be one of many questions that Porter Robinson has been turning over within the wake of his 2021 album Nurture, which featured a lot of sober meditations on life and the that means of artwork, and whether or not it was even price persevering with to make music in a complicated world. (The reply he in the end got here to, after all, was a celebratory sure.) But how does one observe that? By poking enjoyable on the very concept of such an enterprise. Lighthearted and prankish, Robinson’s third studio album Smile! 😀 is stuffed with joyous abandon and first-thought-best-thought ethos that pressured him to not take himself, or something, so rattling severely. “Knock Yourself Out XD,” is maybe probably the most direct about this altering disposition, delineating a lot of grievances he has with the pressures of fame and the difficult pleasures of success, all whereas undercutting the concept such issues are price writing a music about to start with. Full of joyous confetti blasts of synth programming and an total manufacturing aesthetic that seems like getting locked in a Zumiez in a single day, it’s gleefully absurd and foolish — nearly as foolish as the concept touring around the globe and taking part in songs as a job could be price complaining about. He makes his stance clear on one of many report’s most memorably unusual strains, “Bitch, I’m Taylor Swift!” concurrently celebrating and mocking the distinctive place he’s in as an individual making artwork that individuals care about. — Colin Joyce
