Hi, everyone. It's too dang hot for a flannel here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new Remi Wolf album, Big Ideas.

Here we have the sophomore album of breakout alternative pop artist, Remi Wolf, dropping one of my most anticipated albums of the year here. I really enjoyed the raw, quirky, playful fusions of pop and indie music and soul and RnB on her breakout album, Juno, back in 2021. There were points of that record that to me felt a little underdeveloped and samey as well, but it was still massively impressive for a debut, good as is, while simultaneously bringing a lot of potential to the table that I was very much looking forward to seeing develop down the road, especially considering Remi's proven knack for hooks, her ear for groovy beats, as well as her very impressive vocal range.

She really is a singer's singer in a way which she showed once again in the flood of singles that were released in the lead up to this new album, "Cinderella", "Soup", "Toro", "Motorcycle", "Alone in Miami". With all these tracks, Remi really left little to the imagination for the rest of this 12-track LP.

Still, though, that does not take away from how bold and bright and bittersweet and well-written much of this album is. The opening track, "Cinderella", is a piece of psychedelic funk with very colorful touches of horns, as well as gym whistles. The entire thing serves as the soundtrack for Remi to essentially describe this constant restlessness she feels, this unsatisfiable need for constant change, be that contextually or emotionally. This entire track in total is a wonderful tone setter for the record because not only is it giving us a nice, strong, clear instrumental vibe, but narratively it's setting things up for a lot of a wild, free-spirited fun, too, as well as some intense emotional highs and lows.

Deeper into record on "Motorcycle", we have more themes of escapism and trying to give yourself moments of tranquility and reflection, which works very well with the production, which is pretty much this contemplative soul backdrop with very simple drums, sparkling guitars, warm bass. Then, of course, we have more big beats and big hooks on "Toro", which, to my ears, is one of the more slick tracks on the record, especially with those funk and disco-flavored bass lines and rhythm guitars.

Narratively on this song, we also have more themes of careless fun with descriptions of some mayhem going down at a hotel. I don't know if this is a series of experiences Remy is pulling from that all line up in similar ways, or she's referencing back to things happening at hotels because she's pulling from one singular experience. Either way, it seems like, again, a bit of a theme.

These exciting and thrilling emotional highs on the record are eventually matched with some lows, especially "Alone in Miami", which instrumentally is a surprisingly grungey and alt rock type moment on the record, which I think fits Remi's vocal style really well, at least in this instance, with these very lazy and thick rhythm guitars. Her vocal performance is absolutely fiery on this track. We also get more snapshots of just all the fun craziness going on in her life that she's describing. But in a way, it takes a darker turn with nods to attaining cocaine and all of these new friends wins that are around her, and yet she still describes herself as feeling alone.

Deeper into the record, Remi proves that she is capable of dishing out deep cuts that are just as catchy, if not catchier, than the lead singles to the record. "Kangaroo", as well as. Are you kidding me?

And post-this, we launch into a pretty strong finish as well, kicking off with "When I Thought of You", which is a super despondent indie rock meditation where Remi describes some very complicated feelings she has over or someone that waver between love and the hatred to the point of wanting to fight them, a person or maybe even just the people she's surrounding herself with. Also loving the fiery rush of vocals and trebly guitars on the song.

And speaking of rock, we also have the track "Frog Rock", which sees Remi once again throwing it back to the '90s a little bit, aesthetically, with guitar riffs and big hard-hitting drum beats that feel a little Weezer-esque at points, and simultaneously, some sparkly, funky rhythm guitars and DJ cuts that seem like something lifted out of a Sugar Ray song. And yet somehow it all works without barreling down the road to Cornytown. It's still a very fun instrumental and just creative production. And narratively, I actually like that this song ties a lot of the themes of this record up, where Remi seems to really get a sense of who these people are that she's been surrounding herself with, the individual she's been using to fill the kinds of emotional voids that she describes.

She realizes that there's a toxicity there, that speed running all these temporary connections may not necessarily be the best thing for her. And as a result, the magnetic draw that she once had to these people turns into sickness, and she needs space instead and sets a boundary. And yes, like I said, this track is yet another instance of Remi embracing more of an overt rock style in her music and giving us good results in the process.

But I would say my biggest gripe with the record overall is that not every instance in which Remi goes more rock, it's not always this good. Like the '80s-flavored thing that she's going for on "Soup", in my opinion, is a wee bit awkward, even if the tune at the core of all of it is still a winner. "Cherries & Cream", meanwhile, is like a neo-psych ballad that is a bit too fuzzy at points, so saturated to where Remi's vocals feel like they're almost competing with everything else going on. And on the song "Wave", which I think had a massive amount of potential to it, really sounds just a bit too fried on the chorus. It's one of a few moments on the record where I think the production being as lo-fi as it is actually works against the quality of the song as the chorus and the swell of instrumentation that arrives with it is not nearly as big as it could sound.

With all of that being said, though, the songwriting across this LP consistently is good to great. The production fits Remi perfectly most of the time, and much of what's here in general is a slight and very tasteful improvement on pretty much everything she was doing on Juno. With this LP, Remi continues to be a very creative and unique up-and-coming talent in the pop field with absolutely, positively no sophomore slump in sight.

Shout out to the closing track as well, "Just the Start", which is an acoustic Kimya Dawson-esque moment where Remi is getting a bit self-effacing and making some meta-commentary about her creative process and supposedly being an artist, which makes for an interesting way to end things off. And even if she is in a way being a bit modest on this one and self-aware - admirably so - make no mistake, Remi is absolutely, positively an artist, artiste, a pop artist.

There's so many kick-ass songs on this record, and it's just been amazing watching her grow since the debut, since her breakout singles. It still feels like there's a lot more growth to do, even with her operating at such an impressive level at this point in her catalog already.

I'm feeling a decent to strong 8 on this one.

Anthony Fantano. Remi Wolf. Forever.