Album Review: “The Fool” by Bladee

Reviewed on Audio Technica ATH-M20x w/ ¼’’ lead to Scarlett Solo USB.

The Fool is Bladee’s 10th full-length release and sixth studio album since his debut release, Gluee, in 2014. It refines the production and theming of surprise 2020 release 333 while incorporating some of the EDM-style production from German producer Mechatok’s Good Luck to excellent effect, while also continuing to push genre boundaries and the wider definition of sound in the world of internet/electronic music. 

The Fool is Bladee’s - real name Benjamin Reichwald - followup to 333, an album written and produced after his return to Sweden in 2019, and builds on many of the themes developed in 333. The album is much lighter, clearer, and generally cleaner than his previous productions both in subject matter and production, and these two aspects come together to great effect in The Fool. The album’s opener, The Fool Intro, follows the religious themes of 333 in its lyricism and the EDM-style production of Good Luck in a high-energy, fast-paced opener to the record - immediately followed by the album’s three most popular tracks. The Fool Intro is a strong, bright opener with airy synths under flowing falsetto vocals that contribute more to the instrumentals of the track than to Reichwald’s lyricism. While the track serves as an excellent, catchy opener, it’s one of the weaker instrumental tracks on the album, although an interesting exploration of the sounds. The Fool is overall an extremely consistent record, yet The Fool Intro serves only its intended purpose - setting a bright, hopeful tone for the album and delivering an interesting, innovative beat.

While The Fool Intro certainly sets the tone for the album, Reichwald focuses less on the EDM-driven, club-style production in Let’s Ride, Hotel Breakfast, and I Think… and more on his signature bars over producer Lusi’s - member of production group RipSquad and long-time Bladee collaborator - immediately recognizable, 808-driven beats. The trio of songs are the album’s most popular, for good reason - delivering some of the strongest lyricism and energetic beats on the album, staying in line with the album’s lighter tones.

Let’s Ride is Reichwald’s acknowledgement of his success and a continuation of his most common theme - his dislike of fame and popularity - where he discusses success, failure, drive, and ambition. Lines like ‘Made it from the kid’s league to the big finals / It’s a nine, follow path, noblest striver’ and ‘Sometimes I lose my focus / love doesn’t / And it’s never just that easy’ discuss his success and the dedication required to achieve it. Reichwald’s career, although never truly ‘underground’ or ‘unknown,’ has also never achieved the degree of ‘overnight success’ that many other artists, especially close collaborator and longtime friend Yung Lean have experienced. While his career was kickstarted by a feature on Yung Lean’s debut album Unknown Death 2002, Reichwald’s success has come as a result of his ability to consistently produce innovative records within a largely stagnant genre. Let’s Ride is a triumphant celebration of success and happiness, and Reichwald perfectly executes this theming through his bright lyricism on Lusi’s high-energy beats. The track is an excellent follow-up to The Fool Intro, relaxing slightly more into more familiar territory in terms of lyricism and instrumentation, and it’s immediately obvious as to why the track is one of the most popular on the album. 

Hotel Breakfast is another step back from the more meaningful lyricism in many of the other tracks on The Fool, delivering fun, catchy bars over a lighter beat.  He flexes his success while simultaneously continuing his most pervasive theme - how his fame has not affected who he is as a person - in bars like ‘I am not anyone, I’m just some air inside the air / A piece of sand in all the sand, drop of water in the ocean / It may not seem that way, but I can promise you it’s that.’ Although his lyricism is never fully removed from its roots as more meaningful, metaphorical self-exploration, many of the tracks on The Fool take the album’s lighter tones as an opportunity to focus on his lyricism, taking full advantage of Lusi’s catchy, energetic beats. Hotel Breakfast is an excellent follow-up to Let’s Ride, and it’s immediately obvious as to why the track is among the most popular on the record, as it pairs one of the album’s best beats with its lightest bars, establishing a more ‘fun’ tone as the record enters its main body.

The album’s religious themes are most heavily considered in I Think… where Reichwald discusses his relationship with God and religion throughout his life, referencing his heavy drug abuse in his early career and how sobriety influenced his interest in religion. Reichwald explores the two-sided nature of his life, contrasting the materialistic culture which surrounds his art with his simple desire to create. While Reichwald has previously referenced this element of his character - most notably in 2018 release Red Light - it has rarely been to criticize the culture as he does on I Think… The track’s softer, more melodic beat pairs strongly with Reichwald’s harmonized vocals, another signature trait of his more recent records which has been improved greatly on The Fool. The track is an excellent lead-in to the main body of the record - with a catchy beat, interesting melody, and a more mellow overall tone to provide a sonic ‘break’ between the more intense tracks that precede and follow it.

Thee 9 Is Up continues on the religious themes opened in I Think… paired with some of Reichwald’s most unique bars across his discography, all over a high-energy, reverb-heavy beat which strangely mirrors the structure of Who Goes There, the opening track on Reichwald’s 2016 sophomore release Eversince. The song maintains its connection to The Fool as part of the record’s larger themes but serves as an antithesis to Who Goes There. Even though the two tracks share a nearly identical melodic and lyrical structure, the themes are polar opposites. Who Goes There touches on loss, depression, and isolation, while Thee 9 Is Up discusses interpersonal connection and the importance of trusting that hardship is only temporary. The track represents the wider development of Reichwald’s character over the course of his career through the contrasting themes in the song as well as the running themes in both albums. It diverges heavily from the cleaner and more minimalistic beats on the earlier tracks but maintains the album’s overall sound on an instrumentally-heavy track. The track also serves as a strong thematic followup to I Think… as it continues to develop and build on the album’s religious tones while also maintaining the lighter, more hopeful elements of earlier tracks. Thee 9 Is Up is my personal favorite track on the album, and in my opinion is overall one of the strongest tracks on the album across the board.

desiree takes inspiration from the airier, synth-heavy instrumentals and echoey, layered vocals of The Fool Intro with a much more relaxed overall feel that serves as both a more laid-back follow-up to the more intense and energetic Thee 9 Is Up. Reichwald continues to build on the album’s religious themes, in far more direct references to faith than in previous tracks. While direct references to religion are absent throughout the album, when contextualized, Reichwald’s references to fate and destiny throughout the album clearly serve as references to God. In the bar ‘You change formation (Oh) / To a faithful shape (Shape),’ Reichwald is trying to convey that support through faith comes in the form that will be most beneficial to those who are devoted - a concept that is reinforced throughout the album but directly referenced here, and one that is essential to the overall development of the album’s themes. The track clearly draws inspiration from I Think… in its general structure and thematic references, and from The Fool Intro’s sound - although slower, the similarities between the composition of the tracks are obvious when listened to comparatively. desiree is one of the most thematically important tracks on the album, but most outwardly shines as a supporting track to Thee 9 Is Up, providing both a sonic and thematic conclusion to the track.

Reichwald steps away from the album’s religious themes in I Want It That Way and uses the track as an opportunity for self-reflection, expressing his frustration with his inability to avoid repeating his mistakes. The track touches on the idea of commitment, desire, and the ability to accept failure, but serves most heavily as an introspective on Reichwald’s self-perceived inability to change himself. Reichwald challenges this, however, with the line ‘I’m the master of my fate and I’m having my way,’ acknowledging that regardless of the cause of his failures, he is ultimately responsible for not working to change to avoid repeating his mistakes. The track’s beat is almost entirely top-end and bass, which allows Reichwald’s vocals to take precedence throughout the track. While the beat is relatively simple compared to many of the earlier tracks, it pairs well with the more complex lyrics on the track and allows them to be the clear focus point. While the track is a thematic diversion from the first half of the album, it establishes a strong theme for the second half with one of the most personal tracks on the record.

BBY returns to the lighter, less personal lyricism of tracks like Hotel Breakfast and delivers more of the louder, high-energy, EDM-style production while Reichwald uses the track both to flex his success and reflect on the surreal nature of fame. The track is another impressive example of Reichwald’s ability to seamlessly switch between styles, flows, and sounds, all while never failing to perfectly convey the wider thematic importance of each track. It takes advantage of the EDM-style synth-heavy beats throughout the album to deliver a higher-energy, brighter track, and maintains the simple, high-contrast beats found on songs like I Think… and desiree, which allows Reichwald’s vocals to not only maintain a strong presence in the track, but shine in their use as another instrument. While BBY, like Hotel Breakfast and Trendy, makes a much smaller contribution to the overall thematic value of the record, it’s an excellent track regardless and is a catchy, high-energy track that nicely punctuates some of the more complex tracks on the back half of the record.

Inspiration Comes is the only track on the album with a feature, and Reichwald brings on longtime Gravity Boys/Shield Gang member and collaborator Thaiboy Digital for the track. The beat is similar to Thee 9 Is Up, using clean, insistent drums over a mid-heavy melody that allows the lyrics - which return to much more thematically relevant topics, especially those within the second half of the album - to take a clear precedence over the rest of the track, especially in Thaiboy’s verse. The track discusses the circularity of life and the unpredictability of repetition, as well as beauty and destruction being intertwined and inseparable. The track features some of the most significant references to 2020’s 333, directly referencing Noblest Strive and Reality Surf, which are both thematically consistent with The Fool as a whole, but specifically with Inspiration Comes. The track is an excellent blend of the record’s themes with some of its best qualities in terms of sound, and Thaiboy delivers a strong performance in his verse. It’s a strong pair to Thee 9 Is Up, and although it draws heavily from the sound on the earlier track, it manages to provide a unique sound over a proven composition with catchy, bright vocals.

egobaby opens with a line in Swedish which translates to “There are always levels, Avicii, living in the fantasy world for real.” This line is likely a reference to one of the most consistent themes across Reichwald’s work - his position as what he consistently refers to being a ‘trash star,’ or someone who is famously controversial, and the surreal duality of his position. While Reichwald is massively popular within his subculture, he often references the fact that he is actively disliked by an equally large portion of the musical community. The track is also one of four to have received a music video, and while the visual itself is simple, it provides a much greater degree of importance to the track’s lyrics. The track and video are some of the most subtle and meaningful that Rechwald has released, and in a similar fashion to the Reality Surf visual, it manages to deliver not only a thematically consistent but aesthetically pleasing visual that holds significantly more meaning than is immediately apparent. The track’s instrumentals have a much darker tone than the rest of the record, although, confusingly, the track’s tonality isn’t consistent with the thematic elements present in the lyrics. Reichwald further discusses the concepts of good and bad being intrinsically linked throughout the track, referencing his own struggle with understanding the circularity of life. It’s another of the most personal tracks on the album, and while far more subdued than many of the other tracks, the beat is one of the best-produced.

Trendy shares more similarities with many of the earlier tracks on the album, with a brighter, high-energy beat, and vocals more similar to those found on both the opening of The Fool and throughout 333. The track focuses more forward than many on the album, discussing the idea of hope for the future and the beauty of life. Rather than reflecting on his circumstances and the nature of his life, Reichwald touches on his future and the optimism he holds, and the belief that the only way to ensure failure is to focus on the negative. It summarizes many of the larger concepts throughout the record while also continuing to develop the record’s overall message, and is another excellent example of Reichwald’s ability to continually deliver innovative sound without sacrificing thematic integrity.

Search True is an excellent summary of the album thematically and serves as a significantly more poignant closer than Wett (Water 2), succinctly covering the album’s major themes and maintaining the overall feel of the record while also relaxing some of the more intense production that runs throughout the record. The more relaxed tone of the track’s instrumentals serve to establish the track’s mood well, similar to the production in earlier tracks like I Think… While a closing track with this tone is not always necessarily the best choice, it pairs well with the overall intensity of the album and is a satisfying end to the record. With instrumentals and vocals that, although reliant on some of the same production techniques found in earlier tracks, still manage to establish themselves as not only unique, but excellent contributions to Reichwald’s innovation throughout the record.

Though not the final track on the album, Search True is what I personally consider the ‘end’ of the album. While Reichwald consistently delivers innovative sounds without abandoning his signature style throughout his discography, one of the only issues that appears with any consistency is weak closers - and this is unfortunately very present on The Fool. Wett (Water 2) is by no means a bad song, it feels uncertain in that it both fails to succinctly close the album thematically but also has the weakest - not meaning bad, but simply that it doesn’t do much to establish itself alongside tracks like Hotel Breakfast - production on the record and ultimately, clouds the album’s resolution. The track simply feels too distant from the general production style of the record and has so little independence thematically that I do not feel it justifies an in-depth analysis.

FINAL REVIEW

The Fool is Reichwald’s most accessible work by far, with strong, clear production and generally lighter themes. It is consistent throughout, and Reichwald’s lyrics over Lusi’s beats are a tested and truly unbeatable duo in Reichwald’s discography. While it doesn’t necessarily achieve the peaks of Icedancer’s (2018) track Be Nice 2 Me or Red Light’s (2018) track Obedient, the album is stronger throughout - and even with a relatively weak final track, it’s absolutely a no-skip record.

  SCORING

Production - 8/10

Lyrics - 9.5/10

Theming - 7/10

Consistency - 7.5/10

Accessibility - 9/10

The Fool (2021), Bladee - 8.2/10