This is my (coneja's) first article/review for newfriends. My Adderall is wearing off, so I do apologize if it is messy or not as composed as it should be. I don't believe in RYM style reviews, I think most of the reviews are annoying personally, and won't be giving the album an official rating. I want these "reviews" to serve more as a personal discussion on the album. Most of these thoughts were expanded on from a small paragraph I wrote to a friend about the album, and I plan to use those as a base for my first few articles. Thank you, and please enjoy.
ARTIST: SORBET
GENRE: Shoegaze, Noisegaze, Emo
FAVORITE TRACKS: "black mould poisoning", "i wish every single aspect of my life was completely different", "and never love again, and never hurt again", "high-highs and self loathing"
LISTEN TO HERE: bandcamp
spotify
youtube
I found this album through a app/widget on my Iphone called "Airbuds". For those who don't use it, it essentially is a feed of what your friends are listening to (on Spotify) with other neat and cute (and really just an excuse for more features) like roasts or compliments from what I can only guess is a GPT wrapper. As someone who spends way too much time on the internet (important detail for later), I often find myself doom scrolling on Instagram or some other form of social media, looking at what are the lovely post-irony "meme accounts" that exist in the thousands. One of these accounts I follow is the *somewhat* famous "realeaterforeverr", or by his real name, Dyaa. During one of these doom scrolling sessions, I say that he had posted a link to his Airbuds account, and I was interested, as what could a meme account who's content contains phrases and words that were NOWHERE in the bible listen to? Well, turns out, some pretty cool shit.
Checking out Dyaa's recently listened to showed that he was listening to a really interesting looking album by my (in all honesty non-existent) standards. The album cover stood out to me, a girl, laying down in what appears as an abandoned building, with nothing but a blank stare and slight frown. You know how I said earlier I spent too much time on the internet? One of the contributing factors to that is my mental, and having a dreaded, constant sense of loneliness on top of me at all times. I could see myself in that album cover, and I knew I had to listen to it right away. The first track, "ソーベ・ソフェーヤの消失 (the disappearance of sobe sophea)", is an instrumental, and sets the tone for the remainder of the album. It starts of gentle, and then drops into the "heavier" side of the album. There isn't anything super special about this track, but I find it as a good opener. This more "gentle" side of the album immediately ends with the second track blasting it's percussion right in your ear, met with screaming from the vocalist. It is a pretty organized track all things considered, and brings up the first thing I picked up on my first listen: This album is really loaded emotionally. The second track sounds exactly how built up frustration (of any kind) would sound like. From what I could gather, the screaming itself is just screaming, there was no lyrics listed for the track on the group's official Bandcamp. The third track really spoke out to me, and is probably my favorite, lyrically and instrumentally. Instrumental wise, the guitar and less energetic drums (compared to the previous track) captures the feeling of laying in bed, alone, and upset perfectly. The lyrics consist of someones frustrations and sadness found in a one sided, non-existent relationship, that they know is not possible or healthy, yet they dream/stay close to the other person out of an attachment that only exists in their side of the relationship. It is a good transition into the rest of the album that is the back and forth of frustration, loneliness, reflection on the past, and back into frustration. That theme of back and forth is reflected in the track titles, that feeling of being trapped in an endless cycle that you cant seem to break out of, one where your only options are to shout, rip your hair our, and cry. The album reaches a turning point in how the emotions are dealt with the seventh track, where they eventually "come to terms" with their situation (giving in but being okay with it). The ninth track then acts as a breaking point, the final nail in the coffin to speak, as one final shout into the void before moving on and accepting that there isn't anything else to say on the matter. All the frustrations simply come to a bittersweet end as they move on to other things, but still remembering it all, and still wishing there was different resolution to it all, but accepting it as what it was.
The internet has caused many (myself included) to struggle with finding people who are into what you are in person. It's so easy to go on a forum, join a Discord, launch a game, and immediately find people online who just click with you. However, in most of these cases, you and those you found yourself forming friendships or deeper relationships with are often miles apart, causing a deep empty feeling in you when you can't find those same connections in person. You might find yourself growing too attached to some people, and this album seems to highlight that feeling and frustration perfectly. In the words of the band themselves "SORBET are an internet girl band that play music in the empty halls of abandoned dreamscapes. their first album, 'the lonely god and the defective vessel' is 11 tracks performed and recorded in the various derelict spaces between missed opportunities and empty dreams. we hope you can join us, together in loneliness, and feel slightly alive if only for an ephemeral moment in time." I found myself crying after hearing the album for the first time, and by the album cover alone, I should have realized earlier what I was getting myself into. I was glad to know that I was not alone in that struggle, and that this album served as a gateway into a shared experience that others can relate to. There are other personal details that I would talk about, but I think I've said enough about this album as is, and that you should try to figure those out on your own. Overall, the album is very consistent and solid. If you like emo, shoegaze, or are in that struggle, I think you'd get a kick from the album.