Liquids Heaven

With 2021s Cheetah Bend, Jimmy Edgar moved away from his earlier club-based sound and embraced contemporary rap, R&B, and pop production, particularly finding kinship with the bubblegum bass of SOPHIE and the PC Music crew. Liquids Heaven continues in this direction, pushing his skills as a sonic architect to the extreme while maintaining a sense of pop immediacy. The entire album clocks in at 28 minutes, and in that limited time frame, theres room for hard-edged trap, ethereal pop, and speaker-freaking experiments. The set is bookended by "Euphoria" and "Never Leave," two weightless, starry tunes that each suspend a moment of bliss for a few minutes. "Dreams 1000000" is similarly gentle, though it has a minimal beat pushing it along. The rest of the album is much more volatile. "Everybody" (with 10k.Caash and ZelooperZ) and "No Antidote" (with Ripparachie) are party-starting trap bangers that leave room for their featured rappers but incorporate squishy, acid-like synth textures. The swerving, elastic "Slip N Slide" and the shapeless avant-garde splatter "Sideroom" are singular showcases for Edgars experimental impulses. "Bite That 2" has the albums most distorted, unhinged beat. Liquids Heaven contains some truly boundary-pushing production. ~ Paul Simpson