Posted: by The Editor
Photo by George Muncey
Porter Robinson made his grand return to music in 2021 with his magnum opus, Nurture, after an almost absurdist breakthrough from enduring years of depression and the desire to quit music. Now we find Porter reeling in from two years of intense touring to give us his third official album Smile! : D – the ying to Nurture’s yang.
Nurture was about desperately trying to find meaning in life to keep going and Smile! : D slaps us across the face with these same concepts but wrapped in a nihilistic approach instead. Imagine the meme of the two guys on the bus and both sides say “nothing matters!” and you’ll understand the vibe. Right off the bat there are beats reminiscent of Worlds with Porter singing “bitch I’m Taylor Swift” on the opening track “Knock Yourself Out XD”. The music video for the song had Porter dressing up as an inflatable tube man carelessly flowing in the wind as if all his worries had washed away. “Russian Roulette” feels as though we are exploring part two of “Look at the Sky” from Nurture. Where “Look at the Sky” had Porter singing “Look at the sky, I’m still here. I’ll be alive next year.”, “Russian Roulette” has Porter singing “I wanna live I don’t wanna die” alongside of a list of reasons to stay alive just before Stephen Hawking tells us “don’t kill yourself you idiot”.
It’s evident that touring with James Ivy has begun to wear off on Porter. Once past the singles at the beginning of the record, we start to hear melodic guitars serenading us on tracks such as “Year of the Cup” and “Easier to Love You” that are a page right out of his playbook. We can also sense a touch of James’ “L Trip” writing when Porter talks about not being able to sleep with his mind reeling from the things he’s said on stage. Grappling with the burnout that performing electronic music gave him and doing a full heel turn toward instrument driven music proves to be a net positive for Porter Robinson as the balance of both worlds (no pun intended) elevate these more melodic tracks to “Everything Goes On” ear worm levels.
Now it wouldn’t be a Porter Robinson album if he didn’t fully show his roots at least once. This was true with “Dullscythe” on Nurture and remains true with “Mona Lisa” on Smile! : D. The roaring synths, electronic drums, and drops at the beginning of the verse hint at “Divinity” sound that brought him to fame in 2014. A constant reminder of what was and the inability to let go.
There was a necessary emotional preparation heading into Smile! : D given that there are still tracks on Nurture that cannot be played in public given the response they trigger. After eight songs that elicited head nodding and smiling (pun intended), Porter brings us to tears on the last two tracks. The opening choir parts of “Is There Really No Happiness” feel as though they’re pulled directly from “Trying to Feel Alive” just before Porter screams “I wanted to be wrong, when it’s over and done. Is there really happiness without this feeling?” at the world.
The creative process is a damning never ending struggle. In the throes of making art, especially after such a meteoric debut album, there is a nagging voice of every critic reassuring every doubt you’ve ever had. For many, this weighs down on the artist’s psyche until they give up and it almost took Porter Robinson. After years of struggling, Porter is releasing his mental burden much like Paulie Walnuts: “You ever feel like nothing good was ever going to happen to you? Yeah, and nothing did. So what!” To say that Porter or any artist fully overcomes this would be naive but it’s clear that he is learning to accept it and wield it as a creative weapon.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
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Kyle Musser//