In the growing body of writing about how disastrous millennials are supposed to be, people throw around phrases like “severely shortened attention spans” as an insult, but the twentysomething producer Ryan Hemsworth is proof that this assumed failing can, in fact, be a great strength. Over his short but industrious career he’s displayed an almost pathological inability to stick with any one particular style of music for more than a few minutes at a time. He’s remixed everyone from Cat Power to Waka Flocka Flame to Danish pop duo Quadron, and his DJ sets bounce nimbly between disparate styles: radio rap into ambient electronics, slick 90s R&B into aggressive dancehall.
In his own productions he’s been relatively more consistent, but still wide-ranging. His original works tend to consist of a rap beat, often one that uses the rhythms of trap rap and sounds that could've been lifted off the laptop of an experimental electronic musician, layered with washes of synthesizers and manipulated vocal samples that deliver the same benzo bliss as Clams Casino and Shlohmo, albeit with a more ragged, deconstructed feel. With subtle tweaks to his formula he can evoke Tangerine Dream or the-Dream with equal ease.
On Guilt Trips, his first solo LP (after an album length collaboration with the rapper Shady Blaze) and second major release of 2013 (after May’s Still Awake EP), he’s still stylistically daring, but shows off a newfound focus that’s uncharacteristic but successful. There’s more clarity here than on his past work—production-wise he’s removed much of the haze that some of his other releases swam in, and the songwriting shows considerably more forethought than previous compositions, which often just wandered around for a while then ended.
His new stuff still meanders, though now with more purpose, sharper hooks, and lusher instrumental textures. They’re most apparent on the several tracks here made for vocalists like avant-rapper Lofty305 and R&B singer Sinead Harnett. “Still Cold” lays a plaintive vocal by Baths over an electropop arrangement that hints at both the Postal Service and some of Brian Eno’s more accessibly quirky 70s material, and is way more hummable than any of Hemsworth’s old stuff.
This new straightforwardness is even more apparent on “One for Me”, featuring up and coming singer Tinashe. It sounds far less like the experimental twists on radio R&B he’s made his name on, and more like something you'd straight up hear on the radio, with a popping bass line, skittering hi-hats, and Tinashe’s voice stacked in Mariah-like formations. As pop’s become increasingly enraptured by blends of rap, R&B, and dance music, pop producers have taken an interest in artists like Hemsworth and his sometimes collaborators like Shlohmo and Supreme Cuts who specialize in these sorts of combinations. A few recent largish albums have shown what seem to be clear signs of their influence. Whether it’s a conscious decision or just the result of his evolution as an artist, Hemsworth’s starting to return the favor, and in the process is looking more than capable of competing in the pop field.
A few small things would need to change in order for that to happen, though. His mixes, while substantially less murky than on his previous recordings, are still a little too unpolished. While there’s something idiosyncratic and slightly rebellious about his tendency to keep the low end just shy of where it should be, it also keeps the songs from being fully satisfying.
One thing he shouldn’t have to adapt is his stylistic peripateticism. Like his DJ sets, Guilt Trips is all over the place genre-wise, but it never feels dilettantish. He has an astute ability to figure out what makes different styles tick, and to replicate them in his own work. The tracks here suggest that along with trap rap, Chicago house, electropop, and the dozen or so styles that get vigorously nodded at over the span of 10 songs, he’s also starting to get a grip on the rules of composing the kind of stuff the Hot 100’s made from. Where he goes from here, whether up into the pop world or laterally off to into some new genre experiments, seems to be totally up to him.
