Hi, everyone. Zoomthony Calltano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Lucy Bedroque mixtape, Unmusique.

Lucy Bedroque, debut mixtape from this California rapper, songwriter, singer, producer, who is still really building a name for himself at this point. This breakout mixtape here is most definitely contributing to that buzz in a big way, as it's really making waves with a lot of terminally online hip hop fans out there, specifically listeners who consume a lot of underground rage type stuff, all these highly distorted, saturated, blown out strains of trap, a lot of which I do have a hard time really getting much out of other than a short burst, a thrill, at least with many of the bigger artists out there, especially as a lot of the most major releases in this style tend to be very one dimensional, very aggressive, very explosive, very over the top, not very versatile as it were, not a whole lot of subtlety, not a whole lot of layers.

And not to say there aren't artists out there doing interesting things in this lane. There are, and I think Lucy is most certainly one of them. And I do think that is due greatly in part to the fact that his musical background doesn't just specifically sit in this style of music. I mean, Lucy has also previously released music not too long ago under the name lostrushi. The 2023 debut album that was dropped under that name has actually become a bit of a modern cult classic at this point, this dizzying fusion of homespun digicore mellow trap, as well as a bit crushed and obscure flavors of pop and rap.

And Unmusique here might be going for something totally different. But there's obviously still quite a bit of creative and sonic overlap going on here in terms of the vocals, in terms of the production and recordings, generally being very lo-fi. But still, this tape does go into more of a rage direction. If you are at all familiar with recent works from people like Playboi Carti as well as Lil Uzi Vert, you're instantly going to pick up on all of this splashy overwhelming production, certain vocal inflections and flows that Lucy engages in when rapping.

But in addition to that, Lucy also manages to incorporate a lot of influences from the world of digicore, of pop, of EDM, electro, a little industrial, too. It's to the point where there are moments on this tape that only really feel like rage-connected in spirit or on a very surface level area in terms of just the super abrasive production style, the way it just blares deafeningly out of the speakers.

But once you dig beyond that very harsh and very uninviting sound, there are actually quite a few different genre fusions going on, even from the opening track, "Speakers Never Learn", which features all these stuttering synthesizers, all these phased out, distorted guitar chords, pumping kicks as well. The whole thing sounds like a very hype piece of radio-ready pop rock, and yet it sounds like it's being aggressively squished and fed into a pasta maker, a noodle maker, and then deep fried to a crisp perfection. And while, again, it is a novel approach, I do question: what exactly does making this particular style and sound so hot on the ears and so distorted... what does that really bring to it?

I much prefer following track, "G6 Anthem", a song that somehow balances the harsh and explosive while also featuring a lot of slick flows and melodies that are instantly catchy. Like the recent Revengeseekerz album from collaborator Jane Remover, Lucy is most definitely trying to carve out a bit of a niche here where these hooky little earworms are almost brought to the point where they are nearly unintelligible by the harshness of the production, but not quite.

With almost every song on this project, you get almost just enough of everything that you need in order to be able to assemble the visual of a pop song or a rap song or a dance song in your head. For example, "Ultraviolet" features more charismatic flows, as well as these club-friendly little groove switchups that sound fit for a viral TikTok dance trend. Then there's also the very anthemic "2010 Justin Bieber", which has some of the best vocal leads on the entire project. It's also matched with a few zany vocal inflections on the verses that feel quite Carti-inspired. The only shortcoming of the track is that it is a bit short.

Deeper into this tape, we get a bit of variation too. "Smackdown", for example, is this weirdly meditative cut that features way spookier synthesizers, low-key vocals. I think it's one of the few times an artist in this lane has created a song I genuinely found to be creepy. And take then the insane contrast over to the song "Fenty Face", which not only has very aggressive locked-in flows, but some of the most skittering high hats on the entire project, booming bass, and also some crunched out synth leads to the whole track sounds like a fucking warzone or even an earthquake to a degree.

However, going this distorted and this aggressive sometimes sonically can end up destroying some of the musical nuances on these songs. Some of the ideas, as a result, just don't fully translate, get drowned out in the noise, or who knows? Maybe they're not that strong to begin with, and they really need to pop out hard and pop out boldly in order to make sense in all of this haze and all of this chaos. Like with "Made in Italy" as well as "Finish Him", tracks that are just utterly forgettable. The pacing on "Cara MIa" is just absolutely mind-numbing, too. Combine that with the fact that this mixtape doesn't really have much of an overall macro flow to the tracklist, seemingly. It leads to an overall experience progression that comes across as just very, very mixed bag, inconsistent.

But that's not to say Lucy isn't still doling out bangers in the second half of the project. You do have "I Am Impossible". You do also have "Ouija", which has this really punky in your face, almost like out of the gate, Playboi Carti type energy that you usually get on the front end of his records more than the back end. The jittery title track on this tape is also something to behold, in my opinion, too.

So yeah, while I do think in terms of influences and quality on music is a little all over the place, you still do have way more many bops than flops overall on this thing. And it does lead me to wonder: if this is how a mixtape from Lucy sounds, how much better and more well-groomed is an album going to eventually sound? Which is why I'm feeling a light to decent seven on this thing.

Fantano, Lucy Bedroque. Forever.