Marshmello - Joytime II

Marshmello
Joytime II
2018
Spotify

You get the sense that this album, Marshmello's second full release, doesn't really matter to him all that much. While He's busy making millions touring festival stages and having his productions all but taking over the Hot 100. All those "hits" though required something else to make them shine, a pop star. These new tracks however are completely devoid of pop stars forcing Marshmello out onto center stage all by himself. This albums predecessor also did not feature big names but 2016 feels like 10,000 years away. There is nothing new here, I repeat, NOTHING NEW HERE. Each track sounds like the same trap inspired EDM music that has aged awfully as of late. If you feel like you've heard all this before you likely have because Marshmello seems to be content on repeating what has been popular in the past. There is certainly a place for this music, at huge electronic festivals or banging in nightclubs, but take this out of that environment and it really just becomes absurd. The big booming horns, the trappy drops, it all leads music that is so generic that everyone can hate it. "Flashbacks" has so many samples it will make your head spin, borrowing from every single thing the man can possibly find. There are so few original ideas on this record it is often hard to listen too. You feel like you are stuck in some kind of time warp, did this come out in 2012? Nope it came out last week and it couldn't sound less like 2018 if it was trying.

More than anyone Marshmello and The Chainsmokers have taken EDM to the pop mainstream. Before them stellar Electronic songs would breakthrough, but they didn't become as generically pop as they have now. It's almost like this is a paint by numbers album, plug in the different settings and you are good to go. Nothing feels original or even cared for, just a group of songs that will get people jumping because it has a big drop. There is one moment on "Imagine" that gets your booty moving a little, but it still feels just like everything else that came before it. The album just feels like this amorphous mess of electronic sounds slammed through a glitter cannon and shot out the other side. One one hand that sounds dope as hell, but when you are the 10,000th DJ to do it does it really even matter anymore? Apparently to Marshmello it does, everyone else however? Let's hope not.

1.0 out of 10