7G - A.G. Cook: Review
is a British songwriter, producer, and head of the highly influential PC Music label. Alongside influential PC Music acts like Hannah Diamond, GFOTY and umru as well as close collaborations with artists like SOPHIE, Charli XCX and 100 Gecs, Cook and his collaborators have been the driving force behind the meteoric rise of Hyperpop in the 2010's. Despite this 7G is the first true solo album from Cook and is delivered in the form of a versatile 7 disc record.
Review By Lavender:
If you've been reading my reviews for any significant length of time you'll know that I am a big fan of PC Music and pretty much all the artists listed in the bio above. I was excited for this record but also cautious as we had never heard much true solo music from him, and a nearly 3 hour record is a bold way to introduce yourself as a primary solo artist. As it turns out the quality of 7G depends a lot on which section of the record you're in, as it is split into 7 discs each with a different instrumental focus, and not all discs are equal.
There is no concise way to talk about a record with 49 tracks so to save my sanity this weekend I'm going to write the review in pieces based on each disc starting with the opening set of 7 songs A.G. Drums. The entire albums opener is A-Z a driving and explosive piece of drum oriented bubblegum bass with rapid percussion lines flying in and out of the song. There are tine sonic manipulations all over this thing that give it a ton of depth as it melds in and out of passages, I think it would be hard to have a better opener for the record. Acid Angel follows this with another insane and jittery track with chopped up vocal samples that make the drums a bit less of the focus. It pairs the driving rapid fire percussion Hyperpop is known for with a bright faced catchy demeanor that I enjoy.
H2O lives up to its name with a watery instrumental and lyrical mentions of water in the second half of the track, but it also feels like a waterfall dumping a thousand gallons of water onto your face in the best way possible and I love it. Nu Crush is a more standard measured percussive affair with a hard-hitting loop and some creative samples hanging around to make for a catchy and fun moment. Next up in the highlight reel is Gemstone Break a beautiful little track with a quiet drum line a strange hollow synths kicking it off. It has one of the most overwhelming and intoxicating builds of any track here that works its way from quiet toa full bodied, dramatic climax. Finally rounding out the excellent first disc is Silver a short pop song with understated and lovestruck vocals. It is certainly simple but really catchy and honestly kind of sweet, plus it features the same glistening synths and crashing percussion that makes the songs surrounding it so good.
The second disc is all about guitar and while there are some decent tracks here it is a major step back from the first disc. Gold Leaf leads off with some washed out pop punk style guitar and some very cloudy, obscured and melodramatic vocals. The blend is sweet but hallow and it really doesn't do anything that interesting. Being Harsh is a track that isn't really that harsh it's more like hushed. The rise in strummed guitar in the second half is nice but the song isn't particularly interesting. Beetlebum was probably the one song on the record I was most excited for because I'm a massive Blur fan and this is a cover of their track. While I think there is some potential in what Cook is doing here I think it could have been executed a lot better. With breathy vocals and stark minimalism I can't help but think most of my enjoyment of the track comes from love of the original. The discs closer Superstar gets off to a fine start but gets more and more unbearable as it goes on. I know this is a "live" recording but it all sounds so lo-fi and amateurish that it's almost hard to tolerate, and it reminds me of some early Car Seat Headrest Bandcamp albums.
There are some solid tracks here however, Undying has some shoegaze like hazy blissfulness that fits the vocals much better than the other tracks here and a pretty rich instrumental that builds to an awesome climax. Drink Blood is a straight up pop ballad with way more frontal vocals than anything else so far but they are honestly pulled off pretty well. The simple guitar plucking that works into the instrumental is a charming counterpart and I like the result a lot. Finally there's Lil Song which has a Oneohtrix Point Never co-write that I was excited about although I definitely didn't think the result would be a Flaming Lips style interlude. The instrumental has all the sounds of a Mario water level with some psychedelic strings overlayed for a weird but cool detour.
Disc three is the longest disc here and it's all about the Supersaw. If these two things on their own don't get you excited you should know that this is definitely my favorite disc here. It kicks off with Mad Max which wastes not time revealing some fucking crushing supersaw noise. The keys on the song are icy and the echoes are triumphant and deep. The whole thing is a driving piece of haunted electronica that I really enjoy. Illuminated Biker Gang is another piece of sprawling explosive electronica that glides in and out of sonic passages with ease. It isn't just the composition here though the sounds are rich and the shrill peaks make for soaring moments of hard-hitting synth. Soft-Landing is a switch-up to a much softer slow-burner that works really well with dreamy instrumental arrangements. The supersaw also manages to still come crashing in and make an impact to the songs second half. Overheim is a track that reverses the formula by starting off with some incredibly shrill synths before working its way into a clearer more dreamy passage. It's the shortest track of the bunch and I have no problem with it.
DJ Every Night is a re-imagining of Hannah Diamond's Every Night. You can definitely feel that strong connection to a pop song here particularly when the vocal samples show up. I actually enjoyed the track more and more on consecutive listens and I think it's a really good pairing of futuristic instrumentation with strong pop sensibilities. Car Keys is the longest song on the entire album and it gets started with a sweet and steady pairing of what feels like synths and vocal samples. I was surprised to find out this was the formula for the entire song without much progression. Even though i enjoy the sounds I do think it is excessive at 6 minutes. Dust is another song with a similar approach to Car Keys but I like it much more as the synths are anthemic and the core groove is punchy as hell. It's a shimmering high point to end the disc off on.
Disc 4 and Day 3 of me working on this review starts off with the Piano section. This disc isn't terrible or great and has some inconsistencies that don't pop up much anywhere else on the record. Oracle is the opener and I think it's catchy and fun. With a refreshingly sweet key phrase that eventually gets backed by some trap drums the whole thing sounds like a boy band song from 2030. Note Velocity rattles off some rapid fire planky manipulated keys right out of the gate. I like that the track is comfortable relying on just the core piano riffs for passages and that the changing and shifting of the songs energy keeps it fresh throughout. Waldhammer is under a minutes but I just wanted to briefly mention that I love it and it sounds like a manic hyperpop version of a classical piano sonata. The next track Polyphiosboisterous is the strongest influence that 100 Gecs have across the entire record with pulsating distorted synth hits that rise faster and faster as the song goes on. It is a disorienting blur that I am always excited to get lost in.
Windows is a decent track the biggest flaw about it is how long it takes to get started. Once the drums kick in and Cook's mumble singing starts to get some actual flow it gets better even though I'm still not head over heels for it. Feeling is another try at a pop song that doesn't resonate with me much. The keys are cool at first but they do the exact same thing for very long stretches of the song. It isn't terrible but it doesn't have as much to chew on as I would have liked. Finally the last song here Anything Could Happen is a surprisingly tame ending with a simple piano phrase and some manipulated vocals with nothing that impactful to close this portion of the album out.
Disc five is all about the Nord keyboard and it's much more consistent than the piano that precedes it. Behind Glass is a simple nearly ambient track that evolves in the second half first into a weird and unsettling slow down, before diving into a short classic wiggly synth refrain. It's a cool way to kick the Nord section off. Triptych Dream is a track that absolutely lives up to its name with layers of percussion chopped up and looped around each other in dizzying fashion to make for a disorienting song but a major highlight nonetheless. Official is a new version of the Charli XCX track A.G. Cook already had a hand in. This version of the track feels just as natural as the original version and I enjoy it too quite a bit. Crimson wasn't one of my favorite tracks at first but I've warmed up to it. The song has some of the sweetest and most raw emotion in Cook's vocals on the entire record and at less than 2 minutes long that's honestly enough for me. Life Speed is a very shrill and jittery closer, while it isn't my favorite song I've ever heard in this vein it does have some cool moments of experimentation to end off the disc.
Oohu is a glitzy piece of electronica that is soured by a really incessant and annoying vocal sample that I can't really stand. The second half gets much better and harsher with pulsating keys though that may save the song. The Best Day was a song that intrigued me because it's a Taylor Swift cover and I absolutely can't stand the original. Cook's cloudy distant version is certainly better but I still wouldn't consider it much of a highlight.
Moving right along to disc 6 the spoken word section which is once again an inconsistent one. Could It Be is the introduction and it pairs chopped up vocal samples at a pretty high velocity with what feels like sped up EDM. I like it even though the vocals don't really seem to be the focus of the song. The End Had No End is another huge highlight and probably my favorite of the straight up covers on the record. I love Cook's interpretation of the track and I think his performance channels Julian Cacablancas well, particularly on the hook alongside an outside the box instrumental. 2021 has some looped samples that are pulled off really well especially the second half of the song which I find getting stuck in my head pretty much every time I hear it. Finally Hold On while it doesn't fit at all with the rest of this disc is still a pretty good song and it features some of the most heavily manipulated of all the vocal samples here.
No Yeah is a short song full of whispered vocals and if the point is to be unsettling then it works, that's pretty much all I can say. If the objective of a spoken word song is to display a sense of flow or storytelling alongside unique or compelling vocals the only way to completely cancel out anything interesting about it would be to speak in random passages while modulating your voice to be completely robotic to the point where you can't recognize anything you're saying, also known as the tracks Green Beauty and Unreal. These tracks are some of the worst here simply because the ideas they are based around were not thought out at all.
Finally the final disc of the record is titled Extreme Vocals. This is one of the better discs with mostly highlights, although it also features what may be my least favorite song on the record. Chandelier is a Sia cover which is bold, and it falls insanely short. Sia is just a ridiculously gifted vocalist and as much as I enjoy Cook'c vocals at parts of the album he just doesn't come anywhere close. The harder he strains across the track the worse it gets.
On the other hand there is Today a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins track of the same name which certainly has some wild vocals but I think the extremity comes from the heavy manipulation than any strained performance. While I think he could of done more I still have to say I enjoy it. The last cover is a version of Crimson and Clover that I like more than I anticipated. As recognizable as the original songs flare is I was surprised to see how well Cook makes it his own and makes for a highlight.
Idyii is pretty abstract compositionally but the minute to minute is actually pretty interesting with the constant changes in pitch and timbre of the vocal samples across its five minute runtime. Show Me What is a great track with a refreshing featured vocalist that I find genuinely infectious despite how repetitive it is. Somers Tape gets off to a slow start but kicks it up a notch in the second half and ends up going very hard and winning me over. Alright is a pretty solid closing track with vocals from Tommy Cash and Caroline Polachek, it's a sweet song with themes of love and touching performances that feels like a fitting closer to this disc at least.
7G is, well it's a lot. Of course at 2 hours and 40 minutes of runtime not everything here is perfect and it feels like Cook is making up for a decade of no solo album releases. That being said I was pleasantly surprised every time I came back to the record to find just how much of it I loved every time. Not just the fact that most of the record is good but also that it has some legitimate highlights and songs I really really enjoy. While my days of listening to this entire record are probably over after this very long weekend, there is a lot here I will be excited to return to again and again. 7/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
I really like this cover. Some may find it too simplistic but I think that the contrast of the black and white and the pattern is dynamic and eye catching. I would've added a bit of text somewhere just to have a solid focus point but it's fine without it as well. It's a minimalistic dramatic piece of art. 6.5/10
For more Hyperpop check out my review of Charli XCX's How I'm Feeling Now here
