Hi, everyone. Toothany Muchtano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Weatherday album, Hornet Disaster.

Weatherday is back, the most popular of many musical projects, masterminded by producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, Sputnik. This is the Swedish artist's second full-length album under this name, the long-awaited follow-up to 2019's Come In, which at the time instantly landed Weatherday a very passionate and very online cult fan base that were thrilled beyond words for what this record brought to the DIY music scene for the internet age, with seamless fusions of throwback indie and emo, noise and slacker rock, too, that all really showcase a serious knowledge for how the genres work.

Now, reminder, again, it's been six years since the release of the last Weatherday album. Since then, Sputnik has had a lot of time to indulge in other musical sidequests, collaborate with like-minded artists such as Asian Glow, and really let the material for this album build up and ruminate. The result is an album that just, for the most part, feels like more and more and more of everything that made come in so good to begin with.

More hooks, more climactic builds, more run time, more anthemic melodies, a slightly wider array of genres, cameras, and influences being pulled on here as well, and a more versatile palette of instrumentation on this record as well. Not just the baseline of guitars and drums and vocals, but also more synthesizers, acoustic cuts, string arrangements, some reeds and woodwinds too.

Additionally, electronics as well. And it's all presented with a lofi rawness that is going to be thrilling for some, but ward off others. Because as well written and grand and passionate as some of the best moments on this record are, it's also encased in a package of total chaos, with all these blown-out drums, utterly deep-fried guitars, strained vocals, and the occasional scream that emphasizes energy and delivery over pitch and accuracy.

So yeah, the sound and presentation of this record alone is going to be enough to turn some people off, especially with its 76-minute run time. Even as someone who enjoys this record, it does become a challenge after a certain point to continue listening to it because almost every snare on this thing sounds like a car being smashed with a sledgehammer in a very tiny bathroom.

But yeah, it all depends on your tolerance level for distortion, or better yet, whether or not the sound of this album scratches a weird itch in your brain. Not to say it's all harsh and unforgiving, though, because there's definitely some beauty behind the rough and abrasive presentation.

I would say that stands true for the opening title track of the record, also the following "Meanie", or the addictive choruses and math rock guitars at the center of the track, "Angel". "Like an angel in the shape of an angel." All of these songs contribute on this record to a pretty strong first leg.

But honestly, I feel like Hornet Disaster is at its best when it's out to prove how subtle and versatile it can be. Like with the very loud and very soft dynamics "Take Care of Yourself (Paper-Like Nests)", which features passages of not just chill, very quiet electronic beats, but also massive, searing, distorted lofi guitar riffs, too, that make for a very righteous transition.

Things get even more refined and palatable, I found as well on the song "Hug", where the drums, surprisingly, don't sound like they're peaking quite as much. And these beats are also matched with gentle guitars and this very beautiful winding lead melody that has no business being as catchy as it is, considering it's so long. Also incredibly powerful ending at the end of this track, too. Song structure, as generally speaking on these tracks, I think Weatherday does a great job of building up a certain momentum when writing and writing it out.

We also have a beautiful alt rock oasis in the middle of the track "Radar Ballet". The refrain on that track read like something out of the Bright Eyes Lifted era. And speaking of clear influences cut from a similar cloth, "Green Tea Seaweed Sea" is like pure Elliott Smith worship all the way.

That is until we start getting blasted with those lofi guitars again, which eventually speed up into very peppy indie rock riffs and more mathy rock guitar mayhem. And that's not even every moment in the song. With it being a six-minute track, it undergoes quite a few evolutions before it finally finishes off. Because even with projects like Car Seat Headrest, for example, making the headway that they have in recent years, I think we still don't expect much lofi music to be quite as progressive and ambitiously structured as this album is and for it to be done so well.

I don't think these songs are just noisy and distorted for the sake of it or that Sputnik has no other means of making music sound any other way. The sound of this album definitely intensifies the emotion behind these songs as there are various states of emotional chaos being reflected in the lyricism.

Like with the tragic refrains that finish off "Cooperative Calligraphy", or with the melodramatic, gruesome, but poetic lyrics that paint much of "Blood Online", especially the final leg, where Sputnik describes this scene in detail, where they're writing messages in blood, but through the internet. It's bittersweet because repeatedly across the record, this imagery is matched with, again, very anthemic and very catchy rock songwriting that is shrouded in, just again, nastiness, the very nasty, distorted sound of this record.

This is around the halfway point of a very dense, very long album, but still the rest of the record has some more switch-ups and surprises to offer. "Polka" is one of the most direct tracks on the album, and it's really an indie and punk blend and features lyrics in Swedish. "Heartbeats" also features way more clarity in the mix than I think any other song on this record does. It's the better for it. The bass actually has some palpable low end.

"Chopland Sedans" also takes a surprisingly mellow approach to its sound. Plus, there is a beautifully tender piano outro to this track that I think adds so much to it, too. It's just nice to hear that Weatherday's songwriting still has a lot of impact and character to it, even when the volume isn't turned all the way up to 11, which does make me wish that there were more spaces on this record like this one.

Feeling the same way about "Ripped Apart by Hands", too, which instrumentally comes across a quirky variation of synthpop on some with an acoustic intro and a lot of lyrics that address self-recognition and identity. The strong moments continue to roll in toward the end of the album. The incredibly catchy "Tiara" is just pure raw emo bliss, and the danceable rock breakdowns on "Agatha's Goldfish", to me, read very much like being inspired by the Microphones' The Glow, Part 2.

However, the final track on the record has a fizzled-out ending and blown-out electro beats that I think don't really fit in with the rest of the LP. As long as I'm throwing in some critiques, I might as well address what I really feel like is my biggest issue with the record, and that's that it drags on so long, even if maybe on some level it is coming from a place of being inspired by some of the big, lengthy, lofi, indie classics of the past from bands like Guided by Voices, for example, which I see and I respect that potential connection. But by that same token, for a record like this, being as long as it is, I was hoping for more variation, especially on the intensity front, because there are so many tracks consistently that are just totally blasting you with full volume as much as possible.

Even though the songwriting and melodies across this record are so damn good, they do tend to blend together a bit too much of them, not paying the most direct and intense attention to what is going on every single moment. Again, I do appreciate the energy and the rawness of the sound of this record, but I think toning things down just a smidge would have made it all just a bit easier to read.

But yeah, on some level, I do think that the instrumental palette of this record is a bit too one note and unforgiving for something of this length, even if some of the best and most rocking emo high points on the record reflect some of the greatest ideas of bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and Cap'n Jazz. But yeah, in a way, it's just a little overkill. That's ultimately my main gripe with the record.

Still, with that being said, I think we're talking about a very, very, very good album as is. I just can't help but feel like there was an even greater album hidden in here with maybe a quarter of the run time shaved off, which is why I'm feeling about a decent two strong 7 on this project.

Have you given this album a listen? Did you love it? Did you hate it? What would you rate it? You're the best, you're the best. What should I review next?

Anthony Fantano, Weatherday, forever.