AwkwardLowlife - AwkLow (Album)

AwkwardLowlife has been extremely prolific since releasing his "Wrong Life" album back in early March. Since then, he's been dropping a slew of concise projects showcasing his ever-growing skills as an artist while taking us deeper into his life & psyche as a man. He had to be "Incinerate" then rise from the "Ashes" like a phoenix only to realize he'll "Never Be Famous." Still, all these factors only pushed him to become more in tune with who he truly is & that is "AwkLow." The album is him fully coming into his own on this project has, of course, resulted in his most complete body of work to date & that's not to say this album's predecessors weren't great. Still, there's this swaggering confidence in these new songs; sonically, he's as crisp as he's ever sounded, very polished.

Starting with what just might be my new motivational anthem, Awk, like many of us, is just trying to continue going up like there's "No Ceilings" & not only in terms of success but also in terms of celebrating his success. I love this cause he admits a lot of things that others may find embarrassing, but he owns who he is fully & apologizes for it. He knows it can be a lot to handle, but his loyalty is also a great perk if you take his arm despite all of his internal struggles with addiction & which includes a dependency on the girl at hand. As explained on "Texaco," this is simply the life he's accustomed to, that rockstar lifestyle he lives to the fullest extent.

Awk is constantly supplying the hit music, especially when he & his cousin Pauliiito link up for a banger, to which they have plenty dating all the way back to "Keep Me Recording," which blows my mind how their collaborations separately have also grown, so far out of this world at that on "Galaxies Outside," a beautiful little Pop Punk number, a style that I'd say AwkLow has mastered to a T. "Light My Fire" might be my favorite on this project, it's probably the most uplifting record on the record & the "20 Buck$" callback just adds so much more to it, he's just out here making love songs. Still, people want to hate, which is fine by him. If anything, it inspires him to be that much more relentless with his creativity.

Awk & Shylio are not looking for "Apologies" from those who've done them wrong or simply may have grown apart from them, but they're still on their minds. She may be doing just fine without Awk or Shylio, but they haven't been doing so well without them. However, they are still intuitive enough to understand that they were never as exclusive as they may have originally convinced themselves they were another Pop Punk banger! This life of his is so "Chaotic." Still, eventually, he's able to take some time to wind down & gather his thoughts on the painfully poignant "Sweet Tragedy." Probably his biggest curveball musically thus far cause I was not expecting an acoustic dirge halfway through this project.

"Love = Anarchy" showcases how he values love over everything, but in doing so, it's brought him a lot of chaos. Still, the love refuses to leave, even in his darkest moments, "Save Myself" is another one of his finest moments in the abysmal. It's a very depressingly subtle banger; his self-awareness is almost scary; he carries a lot of pain with him & continues to numb it, but only temporarily if he's still feeling such strong emotions. It's best if he "Slide Alone" & deal with it all on his own. We then call off the project with "Hoes!" which details his girl-crazy actions; they are all wishy-washy, though. He doesn't really care for them like that; it's exhausting having to put up with their shit. All in all, this is AwkLow's latest magnum opus; he just continues to improve upon each release. He is even tapping into his old rap persona on the album's lone bonus track, which only further exemplifies how omnipresent his presence shall continue to be.