Red Light Album Review

By Alex Carson

Stockholm Drain Gang member Bladee has returned with his recently released studio album, Red Light, under the YEAR0001 label. The artist’s first studio album, Eversince, was released in 2016 and was met with praise from SoundCloud veterans and completely new fans alike. His emotionally empty lyrics and brutally sad vocals contributed to the success of the album. Despite this well received sound, Bladee has evolved ever so slightly in order to deliver a familiar but fresh sound on the new album.

Right off the bat Red Light begins with a light hearted and even playful song,1D. Yes, as in, the British boy band One Direction. Bladee drops in on the Whitearmor produced beat with an uncharacteristically fast verse in which he claims, “DG the new One Direction”. This song sets the tone for the album as it is a clear diversion from the endless sadness of his previous album. The airy and fast paced beats on the following songs continue with a satisfying consistency that is similar to Bladee’s 2017 mixtape Working On Dying. Throughout the album Bladee maintains his trademark heavy auto tune style while showing off new flows that are closer to rap than anything he’s done previously. Around the halfway point of the album there are two features from fellow Drain Gang member Ecco2k, who provides a breath of fresh air from Bladee’s melancholy flows. There is also a feature from London based artist Uli K who is under fire for extremely suspect sexual harassment allegations at the moment. His hook on That Thing You Do is mostly unmemorable and frankly goes on too long. As the album reaches its end it begins to sound more like the old Bladee with songs like College Boy and Puppet Master that provide an in depth look at his everlasting sadness, tortured love life, and savior from being a failure when Bladee sings, “I had dreams of life that were lost in empty space, I had almost drowned if I didn’t fuck with that drain.”

Overall, Red Light, is a stray from Bladee’s usual style while maintaining a sound that appeals to his dedicated fan base. It’s definitely a worthwhile listen for anyone who enjoys emotional rap as well as “cloud” production.