EP REVIEW: molotov – sadeyes
A new narrator in the sad boi saga, Portland rapper SADEYES has brought his signature low-tone down-trodden tunes to molotov – a new eight-track EP bringing together a selection of truthful, emotionally hard-hitting tracks. Treading down the same lo-fi path as the likes of LIL PEEP and CORPSE, SADEYES – real name Nathan Lewis – has tunes talking about tough times in life. He speaks of the hard realities for most people, especially younger people in the current societal climate. For example, paranoia sees Lewis pondering, “is there anybody out there that can help me now?” The lyrics look at infidelity, drug abuse and mistrust from one person to another. Themes too commonly discussed and more often than not glamorised, made to look trendy, fun, cool; paranoia instead flips it to show that it’s in fact heartbreaking, hurtful, traumatising. These are home truths that can only hit hard when put out in a musical sense.
dear labels is a diss track about the capitalism that surrounds the music industry through music labels. Lewis uses this track to pin his music as “[faking] it til I make it” and how label executives have approached him in hopes of signing him due to his rising success. It’s another common issue within the industry, one that is not as openly discussed as it should be. Many major labels have been publicly shamed for being too controlling of their creative clients, dictating everything from their sounds to their lyrics, from their genres to how many songs they can add to an album’s listing. It’s gradually becoming more common for acts to stay unsigned in recent times, and SADEYES is living and breathing the advertisement for such a move. Music is the artist’s and should be the artist’s alone. Labels are meant to be helping hands, not bank robbers.
One of the standout tracks of the EP is raining in osaka. Featuring fellow rapper RXSEBOY, it’s another song that talks about isolation and depression. The phrase “I was sad and alone” brings raw emotion to the hook and the end of the track. However, there is a dash of hidden hope. The lyrics are spoken occasionally in the past tense, making raining in osaka a more reflective piece than originally thought. Apologising for being closed off, acknowledging events of the past being in the past, it’s looking back, not forward. It’s about what has happened, and what should not happen again. A melancholic tune hiding just a glimmer of a brighter tomorrow, it’s the most many can hope for, including SADEYES and RXSEBOY.
molotov is a simple expression of contemporary life, inside the mind and out. Set to relaxing lo-fi rhythms, it allows taking in the words and meanings to be easier, smoother and without fault. There is better understanding of the world outside one’s own view, just from hearing one man’s words on his experiences; his ups and downs, in both professional and personal settings. Grab the matches, it’s time to set this whole world on fire.
Rating: 7/10
molotov is out now via Epitaph Records.
Follow SADEYES on Twitter.