Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager Review

Where the first record was a mood piece with a story stapled on, this one lets the mood be the story, and it is far more convincing for it. The production is heavier, drums that actually land, guitars and organ pushed through fog, and the tempos sit lower so the whole thing feels like being awake at four in the morning without wanting to be. Mr. Rager is the centre, a song about running from himself with a hook that circles the same three notes until it becomes hypnotic.

Erase Me is the pop swerve and it works because it is placed exactly right. Ghost and Trapped in My Mind are unglamorous about the drugs in a way the first album romanticised. Marijuana is the one lapse. It is fifty minutes of controlled misery with genuine tunes in it, which is far harder to pull off than the reputation suggests, and it is the record of his that gets played here.