Easy Life — Junk Food — Mixtape Review
Alternative | Indie | R&B
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
It seems like 2020 is already getting off to quite the promising start. There have already been a number of new teaser tracks that have gotten me exited towards upcoming projects. “But what would be the first album of 2020 that I end up reviewing?” I hear you ask; well, that’d be from a band known as Easy Life.
Easy life was an artist that had occasionally buzzed around my awareness for some brief moments in 2019. This most likely started off with their placement on the line-up for 2019’s Truck Festival in Oxfordshire. And while I did attend that same festival, I only saw their live set for a very brief period.
At that moment in time, I would’ve regarded the bands music as really quite solid. However, I didn’t yet feel that essential connection with Easy Life, yet the band didn’t fail to keep tugging for my attention, for even more buzz that revolved around Easy Life followed, with the band getting a lot of attention through radio mentions, and other means of promoting the group.
So with the new decade having rolled in, and my eagerness to listen to new music fully ripened, I thought the time had come for me to give Easy Life the time and attention that was quite frankly, long overdue from my end, with their brand new album, Junk Food.
Technically neither an album or EP, Junk Food is in fact described as a mixtape, which makes it the third mixtape from Easy Life. Although, it is certainly fair to say that Junk Food has enough substance to make it feel like a small album, or on the flip side, a very generous EP. All questions of clarification aside, my main focus when diving into this, was whether the band would finally earn my overdue praise, and whether they will be, as the album suggests, my “new favourite band”.
In terms of teaser tracks for this mixtape, one would have to consider that what I had heard, was heard on quite a low-quality radio. Therefore, I was going into this mixtape fairly afresh in terms of expectation, but I still went in with a positively hopeful mindset.
Stylistically, I feel like Junk Food carries a nice blend of Rex Orange County and Mac Miller influences (especially the latest studio albums from each of those artists mentioned). To elaborate on this, the overall aesthetic of this album is quite urban-sounding and generally very soothing and feel-good. And of course, I would recommend this mixtape to any Mac Miller or Rex Orange County fans reading this.
Influences aside, this mixtape serves as the next big step in perfecting their slightly unique hip-hop and indie blend, and I certainly feel like a fair few of the tracks found on this thing are amongst the most refine from Easy Life to date.
With this latest mixtape being released upon the world, the path before Easy Life, and the future of their career, seemed to be nearly its completion of being paved out. The band’s wit and innovation seem to be slightly more apparent now.
Despite the fact that I am already enjoying this mixtape considerably, I definitely have a hunch that it will only continue to grow on me tremendously. There are indeed a few dull points on Junk Food, but the pros undoubtedly outweigh the cons. And while Easy Life aren’t quite my favourite artist yet, my attention is now finally on them, and I will be sure to keep an ear out for future projects.
Favourite Tracks: Nice Guys | Dead Celebrities | Earth
Least Favourite Track: LS6
Universal Music Operations Limited | Island Records
