Album Review: Jane Remover - Revengeseekerz

After letting in all manners of frustration that came their way for quite some time, Jane Remover has now let that go in continuous succession. Despite its overwhelming nature becoming a double-edged sword, ‘Revengeseekerz’ remains ballistic, showcasing overall refinement and strikingly pummeling melodies that amplify the emotional intensities on display.

From an artist’s perspective, there’s going to be that inevitable feeling of irritation whenever people keep asking for something or providing divisive comments and wild comparison points of their discography, a set of factors that certainly lead to a messy situation. In a time where demands and pleas feel like an obligation or added pressure to the artist - especially in the internet age where past works and personas would be embraced so wholeheartedly that whenever the artist throws out a curveball on their next record will become a cesspool of bad faith, parasocial arguments that’ll be thrown on all angles - there’s no wonder how much they’d prefer getting the fuck out of social media, preferring to avoid the hyper online discourse surrounding the music being pushed that ends up being outright insufferable. Jane Remover certainly has gotten this ever since they’ve been shifting into different genres and adopting more pop structures, where after they brought up standalone singles such as ‘Magic I Want U’ and “Flash in the Pan’, they knew they had to lock in, purify that previously mentioned irritation that they have been hearing, seeing, and experiencing into an album.

What then emerged from that focus is ‘Revengeseekerz’, an album that may seem to incorporate familiar touches of their past works, but a closer listen reveals a slight evolution from those past sonic elements. Pulling in all the digicore electronics that was a big part of them, but it’s now stitched with hardcore EDM drops and organic guitar presence that they clearly took after working on their Leroy side project and their general background on experimenting with the guitar from ‘Census Designated’ and onwards. Paired with a maximalist approach to the overall sound design, it leads to everything just combusting at the seams, yet is at its most effective when said sonic elements allow the compositions and Jane Remover’s engrossed vocals and shrieks to drive into fascinating ventures, like the ballsy drops of ‘Psychoboost’ that’s eventually amplified with the rambunctious grooves and Danny Brown’s brief yet snarky presence, the jerky bounce of ‘Star People’ whose gnarly low end slowly goes into the minimal rumbling guitar melodies on the back-half really nicely, the glacial atmosphere that gives a wonderful contrast to the beat drop of ‘TURN UP OR DIE’, the emphasis of catchy choruses that gives the well-composed rhythms of ‘Dancing with your eyes closed’ and ‘Professional Vengeance’ a lot of playful structure, the moody synth string swells and distorted guitars of ‘Dark Night Castle’ that gives a much needed calming tone to the entire album, just before everything proceeds to end with the warped cacophony of ‘JRJRJR’ with all the blaring bass that pops up at the song’s intense moments.

All of that fraught energy seeps the most within the lyricism, where Jane Remover dumps all of their frustrated thoughts that have come to them, whether that be trying to snarkily talk about the people that try to replicate their sound, the internet fanbase that will keep shitting so much about their them and their works while wishing for something that may or may not disappoint them at the very end, relationships that tend to get so close to connecting but nearing reaching it, and just how Jane doesn’t seem to be most happy in terms of their artistic success. The overall process of touring and experiencing whatever stupid backlash comes to them creates an isolating effect, so much so that, eventually, they have to reflect internally and stomp down their past selves - as noted with Jane cutting out their past producer tags that are peppered across various songs - and clinging really hard to the dance scene and whatever connections they have left to feel a semblance of peace amidst the act of releasing that immense anger. It leads to the overall writing becoming a crash-out experience that’s reasonable for Jane Remover, where perhaps, in writing all of this down, it will help them break out of that worn-out stupor after bottling everything in. Even if it may be just slightly.

As much as there are compelling refinements rummaging through the record, there is a limit to how that maximalism will land. It may connect heavily with the anger being brought into the writing, but that nonetheless becomes a bit too effective in providing that blurry destruction to the listener, where the blemished mixing overshadows so much of the instrumental and melodic details of the record and covers up the melodic hangups that come from this creative approach of locking in so much that certain compositions might start blurring together at the very end, an intentional decision from Jane Remover that becomes a double-edged sword. Fewer hooks and more mammoth soundscapes will certainly have bodies moving in a live setting but, as an overall listening experience, the overwhelming aspect of the production paired with the fuming tone of the writing does make the record feel exhausting from start to finish.

It is overall frustrating as ‘Revengeseekerz’ does end up as Jane Remover’s most palpable record to date, where in going back to the digicore sound that led to where they are today, they manage to insert as much bewildering flair and a showcase of their overall improvements as a producer, vocalist, and songwriter. Yet amidst those improvements, the album soon becomes a testing point on how long till those excessive blasts of sound will be overbearing, where the exhaustion may be part of the thematic scope, but sonically create a stinging feeling despite bringing along frantic melodic intensities. In locking in so hard into seeking that revenge, there wonders the question: how much does it succeed? The answer? Surprisingly, quite a lot.

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Favorite Tracks: ‘Psychoboost’ ft. Danny Brown, ‘Star People’, ‘TURN UP OR DIE’, ‘Dancing with your eyes closed’, ‘Professional Vengeance’, ‘Dark Night Castle’, ‘JRJRJR’

Least Favorite Track: ‘angels in camo’