Condiments have the unfortunate pleasure of not being able to play video games. Ever since our creation, and after purchase, condiments such as myself sit idly in fridges or on dining room tables. From afar we hear humans become engaged in combat via virtual worlds with new and classic characters. Listeners have the pleasure of being transported to their favorite worlds in the opening track, “Rebooting.” While Mustard has never played a Nintendo game due to design failure the essence of the opening track makes you feel like you are in the intro loading screen.
Do you press start? Do you wait for your always late human friend Chad to arrive before playing? Did Chad bring the pizza they promised to pick up? These rhetorical questions wonderfully lead into the second song, “Intrusive Thoughts Always” and the third “Stress Headache!” Humans often have these thoughts and it can play a big role, much like a low level or high level boss. Hey, ILY masterfully mixes as they describe Nintendocore with emo and powerpop. Everything flows and transitions together smoothly.
“Glass House” continues the momentum and is the perfect powerpop song to bring Bowser or Walugi down. After you successfully defeat these enemies you are rewarded with “Dreaming.” Dreaming allows you to re-compose yourself and imagine beautiful pixelated landscapes. But like any dream, as I have been told by my human intern, you must wake up and continue your battle – leading into the title track “Psychokinetic Love Songs.” You thought you were done smashing Walugi into a beet sauce? Think again. Momentum picks back up and you must continue to fight. Much like psychokinesis you are given the ability to move objects by mere mental determination.
Mustard’s human intern has recently been playing games such as Hades, Deadcells, and Bastion and this album is woven together much like those. They are most reminded of this listening to “The Tempest” which is a beautiful and epic piano track. “The Tempest” is followed up by “Human!” that tackles with identity issues and mental health. Mustard believes that this song will give humans the courage and power to keep fighting. Unfortunately; humans cannot play video games all day as they are burdened with bills, jobs, and other tasks such as not eating pufferfish. This leads us to “Shutting Down!” which is an instrumental you want to listen too continuously. This album, much like video games, is a great escape to other worlds that is not our own. Mustard is appreciative of Hey, ILY for crafting this incredible album.
Mustard gives this album: 5/5 condiment bottles.
Music Shelf With Mustard 