DJDS - Big Wave More Fire

DJDS
Big Wave More Fire
2018
Spotify

DJDS (DJ Dodger Stadium) haven't been around that long but they have already gone through a musical reinvention. Their previous album was far more indie feeling creating this EDM and R&B bridge that was a bit new for it's time in 2015. This new album however feels supremely of the moment with both the feature choices and musical style. Big Wave More Fire pulls some of the best from R&B and Hip Hop including Khalid, Vic Mensa, Amber Mark and Charlie Wilson. The bar is set high with the second and third track "Trees on Fire" and "Why Don't You Come On?" blistering R&B tracks turned up to 11 with a deep groove. "Why Don't You Come ON?" features Empress Of singing this absolutely sweet line above Khalid's more unique delivery. It almost gives you a whiff of Blood Orange's collaboration with Empress Of from last year "Best to You". You aren't going to find much DJing on this record, which is a bit of a bummer especially on tracks like "Coming Back" where it feels like the duo are just stumbling through samples they've found.  "I Get By" features a pretty nice vocal from Amber Mark, but then Vory delivers this Travis Scott impersonation that is just really kind of off. When the dive into the pop trap world like on " I Heard" it just doesn't really connect almost in a way that is hard to describe. All the boxes are checked on these tracks so the fact that they don't bang is all the more confusing. You just wish on more of the songs DJDS would impose more of their identity.

The tracks that are the most successful are those that are a bit more uptempo. When DJDS drag you down into the muck it just crawls and crawls never really reaching a real point or climax. They are content to keep everything slow and methodical but that approach makes this 44 minute album feel like it's an hour and a half. Even on tracks like "Pick Me Up" where the tempo is picked up the horn inspired drop barely moves the needle. The middle of this album is just such a fucking drag lacking any kind of inspiring moments to keep you interested. "New Grave" is so incredibly slow you'll find yourself wanting to pull the eject lever from the second it begins. I like DJDS, I truly do, but this album is really not their best even though there are some real gems laying in there. There is just to much to get through to get to the juicy parts, plus they are front loaded so it makes the rest of the album feel like it drags even more. There are certinaly some hits here and the album is well produced, but this is not one you are going to want to come back to again and again.

6.2 out of 10