Ambitious Danish alt-pop artist HISSY explores anxiety and its looping, relentless nature on his powerful debut album drain the pool
With the release of his powerful and ambitious debut album drain the pool, Danish songwriter and producer HISSY has crafted a potent and powerful exploration of anxiety through his experimental sounds, a plethora of cultural sampling and referencing, and a powerful, charismatic appeal and confidence in his sound that makes for some truly enduring, brutally honest and captivating art that leaves a lasting impression on you as a listener.
The uneasy tone of the release is immediately established on ‘o’, an abstract introduction that establishes the themes of the album as a whole and this anxiety-oriented journey before seamlessly melding into previous single ‘OVERTHINKING’, an overtly poppy and melodic track that manages to add a more commercial appeal to the complexities of the album in seamless fashion. The seeds of worry are planted and growing rapidly on the track, expressed through its nuanced and dynamic sound that goes through a range of sonic shifts.
Another intense interlude in ‘oo’ segues us into ‘BAD SEED’, a track with slick R&B rhythms and an engrossing, intoxicating sound, with this intoxication and immersive quality unfortunately mirrored by the anxiety that is polluting the artist’s body at this point and consuming him, personified as a serpentine character by the time we get to the following track ‘SNAKE IN MY CHEST’. Themes like death and wanting to die fill the bleak lyrics on the track, and take it to depths that continue to leave a profound effect on you as a listener. You can almost feel the effects that these things are having on the artist in real time as the tracks progress on this album, and it makes for a truly profound listening experience that feels as emotionally draining as it is captivating.
Stadium-sized alt-pop single ‘EMPTY’ continues to expand upon the sonic palette of the album, as the artist delves into the contradictory feeling that often comes with depression of feeling both consumed with your sadness and filled to the brim with it but also kind of feeling nothing at all, a jarring sensation that truly feels like the worst of both worlds. The complex and catchy nature of the track another great job of bringing this sensation to life and articulating the omni-presence of this void, bursting to life in dramatic fashion.
The other previously released single on the album is ‘SILENZIO’, a hook-laden track that once again showcases some of the mainstream pop sensibilities that the artist possesses. There is a real sense of optimism within the dynamic sound and its production that feels like a welcome addition to an album that is so often centred around discomfort in such a brooding and intense way, and it really adds a splash of colour to the release as a whole. This sense of near-euphoria is immediately sent crashing bath down to earth on the distorted and clubby interlude ‘OO’, a track that provides a dose of reality for the artist following the highs that came before it in powerful fashion.
Answers are not something that have been easy to come by, either throughout this album and for the wider scope of people living with anxiety and in similar situations, and ‘THE TRICK’ sees the artist searching for some kind of respite and hunting with a desire to end the cycle of pain and sadness. There is a real sense of reverence that surrounds the atmospheric track and a heartfelt seriousness to the way that it unfolds. The final interlude and album closer comes in the form of ‘oooo’, another unsettling and atmospheric addition to the album that provides a moment of reflection on what has come before, on a release that is packed full of relatable, emotionally charged truths and insight into life struggling with things like anxiety, painting these distinctive, realised pictures of what it feels like and bringing it to life in powerful faction, making for a release that stands on its own and feels like an entirely unique experience that leaves a truly memorable imprint on you.
