Castles I & II

Much of Lil Peeps music was dark and brooding, but his collaborative work with Lil Tracy on their Castles mixtape series had an especially bleak atmosphere, one almost completely void of even the meager pop accessibility of Peeps studio albums. Originally released in July of 2016, castles was a three-song outing, expanded on six months later with the five additional songs of Castles II. The distant, lo-fi guitar samples and gloomy melodic hook of "castles" are standard for Peeps emo rap formula, but theres a deeper sense of alienation and loneliness here than usual. The lyrics for every track are heavy with drugs, betrayal, deathly imagery, and a take on depression and pain so pervasive it almost reads as lethargic. "witchblades" is one of the catchier examples of this emotionally drained style, with Peep and Tracy trading hooks and verses about empty sex, hard drugs, and disappointment that stretches back to early life but shows no signs of lightening in adulthood. "past the castle walls" adds to this heavy energy, with a moody, minor-key acoustic guitar loop struggling to keep up with a booming trap beat. Castles I & II is just a little over 20 minutes of music, but feels like an album statement when presented in this format. These banging but deflated songs dont stray too far from the general world weariness that touched all of Lil Peeps music, but theres a deeper shade of resignation and despair here, making it an especially striking chapter in his greater catalog. Its not always an easy listen, but the way Peep expresses pain so articulately and second-nature here makes Castles I & II an essential piece of his body of work. ~ Fred Thomas