About 30 seconds into “riddle,” the lead single off midwxst’s new EP, better luck next time., a sunny guitar riff is swallowed by a distorted 808, metallic snares swap places with rock drums, and midwxst’s mannered emo rapping warps into a wail. “Don’t say you ever knew me, ’cause you don’t know my pain,” he sings with roiling intensity, his voice scratching against the bass like sandpaper. The pyrotechnics don’t last, though; the guitar and campfire claps soon return, and we’re once again folded into the arms of a pop song. midwxst relishes in maximalist beat drops and Juice WRLD-meets-digicore cocktails, but on better luck next time., he polishes his frenetic breed of pop-trap into a more digestible package without relinquishing his disruptive energy.
The Indiana-raised rapper’s most recent project, last year’s Back in Action EP, was largely a rage rap record. Inspired by Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, midwxst cast off his sad-boy posture with exuberant punchline flows atop euphoric synths and thundering bass stabs. I can do this too, he seemed to snarl throughout the EP, and I can do it better than you. In a post-Whole Lotta Red world, where much of the rage rap has been, well, bad, Back in Action sounded like an artist expanding upon the Carti template. Successful as the project was, it was clearly not midwxst’s preferred mode of musical expression, which is why better luck next time. feels like a return to form, a more authentic application of his melodic gifts.
The EP depicts a teenage breakup in suspended animation, a space where rationality dissolves and pain rips through the body like a switchblade. Each song addresses an amorphous ex, one who spews lies, sends spiteful texts, and hurts our protagonist for the thrill of it. On the pop-punk-inspired “car seats,” midwxst inhales a whiff of his ex’s perfume and is reminded how she emotionally broke him; on “misery,” he hurls insults at an ex who won’t stop blowing up his phone. He’s a magnetic vocalist, singing these scenes with animating anguish, his nasally timbre dipping in and out of different cadences. And although the tormented romance gets exhausting—nearly every song recycles tropes about “running away” and feeling “sick and tired”—the thematic and emotional consistency works to solidify the narrative while the beats constantly bend into new shapes.
The production adds essential anxiety and urgency. “switching sides” sounds like a Drake song on LSD, an exhilarating emo-trap banger with bass so huge it threatens to obliterate midwxst’s wonderfully catchy hook. On the brakence-assisted “okay,” a smattering of live drums and glitchy trap snares collide with beeps, squelches, and electric guitar to form a dizzying maelstrom of technical and textual incongruities. Unlike other ascendant hyperpop acts, such as glaive and ericdoa, whose sounds have hewed closer to center as their spotlights have widened, midwxst’s music maintains a fundamental weirdness that’s neither too loud nor too discreet.
better luck next time. closes with “on my mind,” a melodramatic yet heart-wrenching emo pop ballad. Even when the writing falls into affectless bromides—he’s still running away—the song is saved by midwxst’s commitment to the performance; the pain he expresses is located in a place beyond language, and it feels visceral, even intoxicating. In a streaming economy with no shortage of drab, genreless songs, it’s exciting to hear an artist leap so adeptly across styles, from Uzi-styled flex raps to pure pop. His dexterity makes midwxst stand out in the ever-evolving world of hyperpop.
