#starrah

Normani ✨

From 2011-2014, Skrillex was synonymous with the boom of dubstep and big room EDM as he was churning out hits and was known for his signature “wubs.” In 2014, he put out his debut album, Recess which I was pretty mixed about as I liked a lot of things about it but certain songs and features just missed the mark. Since Recess, the only other album that Skrillex has put out was his Jack U collaboration with Diplo. After that, he stepped back from the spotlight, continuing to produce some pretty big records for people like Justin Bieber but his production was noticeably different as he strayed away from the brostep sound and made more pop songs. This departure in sound is a pretty natural segue into the sound of his newest albums, which are his first proper studio albums since Recess came out 9 years ago. He recently opened up on Twitter about his struggles with alcoholism after the passing of his mother in 2015 and spent this time in between albums focusing on his wellbeing. He seems to be in a much better place now considering he put out two new albums and has been playing pop up shows with Four Tet and Fred again.., which look really fun and these two producers seem to be having a good influence on the artistic direction of Skrillex’s new albums. Quest For Fire is an album full of nonstop bangers that are much more stripped back compared to the typical Skrillex sound that he was known for. While there are plenty of exciting dubstep songs on this album, there’s a lot more variety in the music as he heavily incorporates elements of house, UK Garage, and Chicago Juke into the music, which to me is a very welcome change in sound as I prefer these styles. The music emphasizes the groove more than the drop even though there are plenty of incredible beat drops on the album but no wubs which I am completely fine with. The album starts with Leave Me Like This, which has one of the most epic house drops on the entire album. Because it was a single, it feels weird as an intro but it hits just as hard every single time. I love the clunky drum sounds that he incorporates in the song as well. The song RATATA is an explosive banger featuring a very exciting feature from Missy Elliott, who sounds amazing on these types of tracks. Tears has somewhat of that dubstep bounce to it. I like the eerieness of that song. The song Rumble is a welcome change in sound as Skrillex collaborates with Fred again.. for a glitchy yet minimal mid-tempo dance song featuring a show-stealing appearance from Grime legend Flowdan, who delivers another incredible performance on the song Hydrate. I am glad that Flowdan is now getting more exposure to a new generation of people who might not know about Grime or Flowdan’s status within UK music. The song Butterflies is a nice club-ready house song with a great feature from Starrah, who delivers an even better performance on the dubstep-inspired Good Space. My favorite three-song run comes in the middle of the album with Inhale Exhale, which has great vocal contributions from Aluna, whose voice gets looped and placed into one of the filthiest drops on the whole album. The song has a nice bounce to it and pairs perfectly with A Street I Know, which has one of the catchiest melodies on the entire album as well as a nice groove to it. The song Xena probably has the best buildup/drop combo if we want to compare it to previous Skrillex songs as the contributions from Nai Barghouti are hypnotic and builds perfectly into a bombastic yet minimal drop as the rattling drums make up the entire drop and keep building back up. I think it’s such a clean transition and makes for a better song. The drop towards the end of the song switches into a house song but still continues to blend the original rattle into the beat. I think Too Bizarre is the perfect redemption for Coast Is Clear as Skrillex finally made a good Juked song. Swae Lee sounds great on the song. The only song I didn’t care for much on this album was Supersonic as I just found it underwhelming. Still Here closes out the album nicely with a 2-step Garage beat that samples Snoh Aalegra’s Time. I don’t love the high-pitched effects but it’s a good song. Quest For Fire is a new and improved Skrillex making a triumphant return during EDM’s new rise in popularity. He might lose a lot of his original audience with this new sound but I think this album contains the best songs that he has ever made. His return has multiple sides to it as he released his third album, Don’t Get Too Close the day after Quest For Fire. While I think it’s great that Skrillex showcases his versatility with these two albums, I think Don’t Get Too Close is a serious decline in quality. While I don’t hate it and I’m not a big fan of the more pop/emo-heavy sound of this album, I just don’t think it’s very good. I liked the slow rework of Leave Me Like This that starts the album and I liked the jungle-inspired Way Back with a good feature from Pinkpantheress but I really did not the Trippie Redd feature. I thought Selecta with BEAM was very good and made me realize where the sample from Rumble comes from, which was cool as Skrillex has sampled his own songs before to make even better songs (First of The Year). I thought Summertime with Kid Cudi was very good, Swae Lee sounded good on Mixed Signals, and I liked the way the album closed with Painting Rainbows. However, the rest of the album was just not very good in my opinion. It’s not really my type of music to begin with but I didn’t care for the features all that much and Skrillex’s singing on the title track wasn’t too great either. Don’t Get Too Close is definitely the inferior album but does not spoil my enjoyment of Quest For Fire, which is easily one of the best albums of the year so far.

Fav Tracks from Quest For Fire: Leave Me Like This, RATATA, Tears, Rumble, Inhale Exhale, A Street I Know, Xena