Rooster: "Nuketown Blues"

"You may know Carl-Mikael Berlander as Gud, or Yung Gud: a self-described misanthrope and an architect of cataclysmic pain music from Yung Lean, Ecco2K, and Rx Papi. When the 30-year-old Stockholm producer finds reprieve, he can turn R&B pastiche into pageantry and make car sex sound like astral projection. On this brighter side of the spectrum, hedonism lingers like chronic illness."

"In his work as Rooster, Berlander finds an unsettled middle ground. His new album Rooster Slipped, which collects songs recorded from 2016 to the present, is anchored by its painfully candid centerpiece, "Nuketown Blues," a sludgy, snare-driven trunk-rattler that doubles as a disjointed ballad. There's a Chrysler parked in the driveway; Gud's beat could be knocking from its subwoofers, its treble chiming like the key was left in the ignition."

Rooster Slipped collects songs recorded from 2016 to the present and showcases Berlander's Rooster persona. The album centers on "Nuketown Blues," a sludgy, snare-driven trunk-rattler that doubles as a disjointed ballad. Production blends R&B pastiche, pageantry, elegiac piano, fireworks, and chintzy slide whistles with hoarse melodies and an aversion to rhyme. The narrative voice is restless and desperate, portraying a sleazebag toying with a wealthy woman while hiding something. Hedonism appears like a chronic illness, giving bright moments a lingering malaise. The music alternates between car-subwoofer swagger and candid emotional exposure.

Read at Pitchfork