Eyedress — FULL TIME LOVER— Album Review
Alternative | Indie | Hip-Hop | Rock
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
Eyedress is the musical alias of Filipino singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer Idris Vicuña, and an artist that I had discovered back in 2020 with the release of their third studio album Let’s Skip to the Wedding.
The aforementioned album was one that I thoroughly enjoyed for its vibrant indie undertones, musical versatility, and lo-fi charm. From that moment onwards, Eyedress has remained one for me to watch and listen out for when it comes to fishing for any musical material for a review.
Luckily for me, Eyedress has proven to be a very productive force since I discovered him. Aside from the album I will be reviewing in today’s article, Eyedress has had an involvement in two other big musical projects since Let’s Skip to the Wedding. The first was 2021’s Mulholland Drive; Eyedress’ fourth studio album, and one that arrived just about a year ago exactly. The overall tone of this album appeared to sound a lot more mellow, which did make sense given the time of year in which it was released. However, I felt that Mulholland Drive didn’t quite have the vibrant appeal and warmth that made the album that came a year before it so enjoyable.
What came after was a studio album released by a collaborative project between Eyedress and Zzzahara, known as The Simps. Titled Siblings, this album arrived earlier this year. That being said, I was incredibly impressed to find that this wouldn’t be the extent of what we musically get from Eyedress for 2022, despite Siblings being an incredibly solid piece of musical work in its own right. As shown by the release of FULL TIME LOVER, the album that I will be reviewing today, 2022 is looking to be Vicuña’s year.
I kind of wanted to make the initial listening experience of FULL TIME LOVER as fresh as possible. However, I did end up listening to some of the many teaser tracks. Given how many there were, as well as the overall versatility of what I heard, FULL TIME LOVER was shaping up to be one of the most stylistically diverse projects that Eyedress has putten out to date; and indeed, my assumptions were correct.
In its entirety, FULL TIME LOVER can pretty much be summed up as an open musical expanse, showcasing all of what Eyedress has done before stylistically, whilst also throwing in a little something different into the mix to spice things up further. The most noticeable of the new elements can be found in the later part of the album, in which Eyedress fully goes down the hip-hop route with the help of some very interesting features.
With 28 songs in total, and a runtime of well over an hour, FULL TIME LOVER gives Eyedress a great deal of creative freedom to throw all of his elements in. However, this of course leads to a handful of songs that do feel like filler in one way or another.
But while not every song on this album was a hit for me (which would’ve been a hard thing to achieve for an album of this scope), FULL TIME LOVER still manages to bring a great deal of amazing tracks to strengthen the discography of this ever-exciting artist.
Favourite Tracks: 2 HEADED GOAT | I DON’T DIAL 911 | STILL IN LOVE | SHROOMS IN DISNEYLAND
Least Favourite Tracks: SPAGHETTI | FAMOUS
Lex Records
