Oliver Tree - Do You Feel Me? EP


Oliver Tree
Do You Feel Me? EP
2019
Spotify

Do you know Oliver Tree?  If not your probably over the age of 28, or not deeply invested in meme and youtube culture. Tree got his start as a Youtube sensation, garnering millions of streams and sliding into the third wave emo scene. The emo of 2019 is no longer a straight line. It used to be most bands participating in the emo scene could draw a straight line to their punk rock roots. It was always about how much of the edge you could walk between keeping your punk cred while still making music people want to listen to. Today it is hip hop that most of these emo kids are drawing inspiration from. Lil Peep, Trippie Redd, Lil Xan and XXXtenacion all wrote songs that were moody as hell but always had a bit of a hip hop edge. Oliver Tree however finds a middle ground between those two ideas and then infuses some dance into the mix. What is left is one of the most 2019 albums I've ever heard. There is little respect for genre, expectation or damn near anything else. Instead of shying away from difficult ideas, Tree seems willing to dive right in. The album's title track co-produced with Whethan has this rock and roll sneer to it that makes it immediately infectious. A lot of music today can sound extemely polished, or muddled up through effects, this record however just feels perfectly content being itself. You get major Justice vibes from "Do You Feel Me?" and that's a good thing.

On "Hurt" however Tree falls back into the long bemoaning that is a hallmark of this genre. Each lyric drawn out almost to annoyance. There are times where the electronics on this record are really awesome, but at other times it feels like a youthful mess. It's interesting because when Tree has some kind of direction He is able to mine some real gold,but left to his own devices things get pretty fucking weird. When you are young and trying to represent a culture as diverse and varied as those we find online I think it's ok to be a little fucking weird in your delivery. It's not all great, but there are some ideas with this Tree that really seem to work. WE'll just have to wait and see if they keep working.

6.8 out of 10

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