"Much of the group's output draws influence from the tape-worn angst of mid-2010s Bandcamp darlings like Julia Brown and the genre-agnosticism of fifth-wave emo. Survey the results of founding member Swords2's productive 2025 for a summation of their wide-ranging tastes: Over the past year, he's tapped his Rolodex of beatmakers to dabble in folksy, pastoral trap, bleepy emo anthems in the vein of Brave Little Abacus, and a self-produced baroque electroclash offshoot of his own."
"While past Swords2 outings tended to zoom in on a specific producer or sound for 15 to 20 minutes, The Long Sleep acts as a sprawling overview of all this experimentation. Indulging his whimsical instincts, the rapper cycles between weird ideas and accessible cuts: If he's not yearning over adorable, MySpace-era electropop on "Everybody Needs Somebody," he's inviting skramz upstart and Worldpeace DMT affiliate 300SkullsAndCounting to screech over chiptune synths."
Le Citadell fuses Gothboiclique-adjacent emo-rap with indie-pop, plugg production, and pop-punk elements via a wide collective of collaborators. Swords2's 2025 output spans folksy pastoral trap, bleepy emo anthems, and a self-produced baroque electroclash variant, showcasing wide-ranging influences from mid-2010s Bandcamp angst to fifth-wave emo genre-agnosticism. The Long Sleep functions as a sprawling overview that alternates between whimsical, accessible tracks and abrasive experiments, featuring guests like 300SkullsAndCounting over chiptune backdrops. Swords2's unpolished wail channels Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Tim Kinsella while marrying sugary electropop hooks to puerile, early-'90s emo imagery.
Read at Pitchfork
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