Genre-shattering polymath Jean Dawson presented a rare amalgam of styles on his 2019 debut mixtape, Bad Sports, recalling dour early-2000s indie rock as often as he experimented with the parameters of trap and R&B production. For his proper full-length debut, Dawson set out to create the "soundtrack for a black coming-of-age film that never ends," and accomplishes just that with this collection of nostalgic dream pop melodies caught in perpetual conflicted collision with high-energy rap. Album opener "Devilish" moves abruptly from bellowed, melodramatic vocals to intense rap flows about monsters, boogie men, and surreal critiques of toxic masculinity. This would be unique enough if Dawson were rapping over a typical trap instrumental, but his melodically sung lyrics glide over a backdrop of peppy guitars and bass that sounds like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at their catchiest. Album standout "TripleDouble" is similar, with a Pixies bass line decorated with trap ad-libs and a big rock chorus. This opens up into a floating acoustic bridge with no drums and A$AP Rocky dropping a cameo verse. Pixel Bath veers towards aggressive, grunge-influenced tracks like the guitar-heavy "Pegasus" and hyperactive "Power Freaks" but tends to erupt in blasts of melodic noise before quickly receding into thoughtful, emotionally bare moments like "Clear Bones." Dawson uses his unlikely marriage of styles and genres as the backdrop for lyrical themes of death, identity, and living life as an outsider. Part Frank Ocean's Blonde, part M83's Saturdays = Youth, and sprinkles of both Smashing Pumpkins-level radio grunge-pop and 2020 mainstream rap, Pixel Bath manages to align all of its volatile components into an incredibly sharp and infectious composite. The wild swings of imagination and daring are so unexpected they can be jarring, but it's this willingness to go outside of the known that puts Pixel Bath in a class by itself.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo