Album Review: 2hollis - star

After proceeding with noteworthy projects under 2hollis’ belt, that upward streak somehow breaks apart. ‘star’ is a major label debut that should pop vivid sonic fireworks, but the exploration within EDM and digicore becomes uninterestingly safe, resulting in a project that doesn’t amplify 2hollis’ strengths but rather tempers them down.

After releasing some of his snappy projects for the past two years, 2hollis’ upward progression suddenly dips down to a stalemate. ‘star’, as much as it can be a clever wink to the album being his first release under Interscope records, is a project that wanders within relationship turmoils amidst his progress on being a rising star, a theme that rarely pops up as he tends to focus on how that affects the relationships he sticks into. While there are a few songs where he does get a bit vulnerable, ‘eldest child’ and ‘tell me’ being some of those examples, 2hollis brushes that aside as he resorts to playing the familiar route. That being the usual egoistic, peevish side that may have stuck on ‘2’, but it certainly doesn’t come off as immense this time.

Part of how the self-imposed ego doesn’t work is due to the soundscapes this time around. Directing his sonic touchpoints to more conventional electropop with some touches of EDM and digicore on the side, all executed with good enough mixing, but not a lot in providing striking melodies or a creative spin on the soundscapes that 2hollis is going for. Despite some decent melodic patches on cuts like the buzzy synths of ‘flash’, the catchiest melody on ‘burn’ paired with its brostep drops, and the bubbling groove of ‘nice’, the overall sound palette just pale in adding more strong melodies and a fascinating flair that 2hollis’ could make it his own, especially in comparison with acts like Jane Remover and Skrillex that built so much more on digicore and EDM with their albums this year, and it only leaves 2hollis rather gripping on the safer and less compelling versions of those genres.

It is rather disappointing that ‘star’ ended up the way it is. An album that puts 2hollis on a new layer of stability and popularity as an artist, yet the overall music and writing just don’t really do much in the long run, where his explorations on EDM and digicore ends up more slight, and eventually ending up being overshadowered by acts that have pulled the sound a lot stronger this year. He may now become a star himself in these current times, yet with this new project, it’s not a good thing that it doesn’t end up shining the brightest.

---

Favorite Tracks: ‘flash’, ‘burn’, ‘nice’

Least Favorite Track: ‘cope’, ‘tell me’