At long, long last, LA-based weirdo duo The Hellp has finally delivered the much-anticipated followup to their 2021 debut album Vol. 1. A far-cry from the aggressively unlistenable textures and jumpy, stimulant-addled song structures of that first project, LL is a masterful album that crams hyper pop, dance-pop, and electro-whatever-you-wanna-call-it into one small, impossibly polished container. Each song is catchier and easier to love than the last, from the motorik warm-up of album opener “U”, to the unabashedly toxic emo dance anthem “Kill4Me,” to the incredible “Colorado,” which feels like everything The Chainsmokers wish they could be.
If LL was a food, it would be some kind of highly processed chocolate bar—a crispy pop wafer enrobed in layer upon layer of poisonously sweet pop production, packaged in a shiny red foil wrapper that will take eons to biodegrade. It’s impossibly manufactured, indulgently presented, and generally sounds like music made by the two most annoying dudes at any given LA party. I am infatuated with this album, as if it’s my deadbeat, couch-surfing boyfriend. My friends don’t get it and I’m always making excuses for it, but there’s simply nothing else out there that makes me feel the way it does.
