If you’ve heard of Lil Peep already you likely already have a pretty steadfast opinion on his ‘emo-trap’ as it’s been christened, but for the uninitiated here’s an explanation.
What Lil Peep’s brand of emo-trap consists of is the skittery hi-hats, cutting snares and deep kick drums of trap beneath guitars and bass that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Brand New track. His vocals move between those extremes in their delivery (either mumble rapped like any other SoundCloud account with ‘Lil’ in front of its name or scream-sung like Three Cheers-era Gerard Way) but tend to stick with a classically catchy pop punk melody. His lyrics are also a mix of trap tropes like girls and getting high (“giving girls cocaine w/ lil tracy”) or heart on his sleeve emo lamentations on mental health and relationships (“the song they played [when I crashed into the wall] w/ lil tracy”). Throw in the lo-fi, amateurish production and drug problem of a Soundcloud rapper and that’s Lil Peep in a nutshell. It’s definitely marmite music, but it’s nonetheless gained him enough fans to the point that he’s now edging 600k followers on Instagram. He’s a bona fide underground star and as a result the debut album of the man Pitchfork called the ‘future of emo’ has been hotly anticipated.
Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 1 (Pt. 2 is forthcoming later this year), is 7 tracks, 23 minutes of pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Lil Peep, only this time with a slightly higher mastering budget and no samples. Admittedly, I’d had a hard time getting into Lil Peep through his stuff on Soundcloud but opening track and lead single ‘Benz Truck’ unexpectedly slapped. It’s easily his best song yet, definitely more to the rap end of the Lil Peep spectrum, with some braggadocios lyrics about girls, drugs and cars.
Unfortunately the rest of the album is marred by cringy lyrical missteps, weak singing and a lack of new ideas. Even across just 23 minutes, his schtick starts to get old quick. Some of the lyrics on the more emo tracks just lack any subtlety whatsoever and sound like the kind of thing a band full of 15 year olds would write. Take for example ‘U Said’ which ends with Peep monotonously shouting the refrain, “Sometimes life gets fucked up / That’s why we get fucked up / I can still feel your touch / I still do those same drugs” with such earnest conviction and such a lack of self awareness it’s almost unbearable. It’s probably this earnest bluntness with which he tackles his subjects that draws in his predominantly teenage fans in a similar way to bands like Falling In Reverse and Sleeping With Sirens, but anyone old enough to have set that phase behind them will likely find no enjoyment in Lil Peep’s laments.
That said, these cringey moments happen far less than they did on any release he’s put out before, so he’s definitely improving. If Peep can keep his momentum up for another year or two without falling off (which is unlikely considering his huge teen fanbase) and refines his lyricism, he definitely has the potential to do something great. But for now, stick to the singles.
Words by Jack Hollis