| Age Of | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 1, 2018 | |||
| Recorded | 2016–2018 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:32 | |||
| Label | Warp | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Oneohtrix Point Never chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Age Of | ||||
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Age Of is the eighthstudio album by American electronic producerOneohtrix Point Never, released on June 1, 2018, onWarp Records. Recorded over two years, it is the first Oneohtrix Point Never album to prominently feature Daniel Lopatin's own vocals. The album was accompanied by theMYRIAD tour, which premiered as a "conceptual concertscape" in 2018 at thePark Avenue Armory and ended its run in 2019.
It features contributions fromJames Blake (who additionally produced and mixed the album),Anohni,Prurient,Kelsey Lu andEli Keszler. The artwork, which employsJim Shaw's "The Great Whatsit" as a central image, was designed by David Rudnick.[3] While not entering the official United StatesBillboard200 chart, it peaked at number 59 on the magazine's Top Current Albums chart.
Lopatin producedAge Of in parts of a two-year period, during which he was also producing for other artists, includingAnohni,FKA Twigs,Iggy Pop, andDavid Byrne.[4] After composing thesoundtrack for theSafdie Brothers' 2017 filmGood Time,[5] Lopatin moved to anAirbnb lodge in SouthCentral Massachusetts, derived from his aspiration to live out the modern cliche of musicians moving to the woods to record albums; the eerie atmosphere in the lodge at nighttime influenced his desire to make "weird, little nightmare ballads".[5]
In addition to Lopatin's own singing, the album also features vocal performances fromAnohni andPrurient, while instrumentalistsKelsey Lu andEli Keszler contribute to several tracks. When the record was nearly finished, Lopatin reached out to musicianJames Blake to contribute to the mixing process, eventually traveling to Los Angeles to complete the album.[4]
The track "The Station" was originally composed as ademo forR&B singerUsher which was ultimately not used.[3] On July 9, 2018, Lopatin released the original topline (vocal melody) demo for The Station through Sendspace.[6] The track "Toys 2" imagines a theoretical sequel to the 1992 filmToys where actorRobin Williams' image has been recreated with CGI (as his will specifically forbade any usage of his image after his death), and pokes fun at the common electronic music trope of composing a soundtrack to a theoretical film (which Lopatin described as "horribly cliché").[5]
Influences onAge Of includedStanley Kubrick's 1968 film2001: A Space Odyssey, which inspired the narrative of the album's accompanying performance installation and tourMYRIAD, as well asWilliam Strauss'sThe Fourth Turning, a favorite book of formerWhite House Chief StrategistSteve Bannon, which Lopatin described as "insidious, like the voice of a computer insisting on the truth about history without any sensitivity given to how complex and non-linear systems might be";[3] Lopatin was subsequently inspired to "[use] that sort oftaxonomy as a kind of farce to then create these little frameworks for understanding".[3] Other inspirations included the writings of the 1990s multidisciplinary collectiveCybernetic Culture Research Unit and the works of singer-songwriters such asBruce Cockburn,Bob Dylan, andPaul Simon.[4]
Around the time Lopatin began finalizingAge Of in his Airbnb lodge, he began working on the concept forMYRIAD, a conceptual concert performance which premiered atPark Avenue Armory.[4] He described the concept as a four-part "epochal song cycle" showcasing the idiocy of previous generations of living organisms.[4] The loose story concerns a group ofartificial intelligences near the end of time named a "Limitless Living Informational Intelligence" (represented in the MYRIAD logo as nine squares) which, for leisurely purposes, attempt to replicate the cultures and behaviors of the previously existent human species. It does this by determining an "average" of human experiences through the species' "recorded output", and does so through imperfect,heuristic techniques.[4] The show was consequently divided into four sections, each representing an epoch of the cycle concept loosely inspired by theStrauss–Howe generational theory: the Age of Ecco, the Age of Harvest, the Age of Excess, and the Age of Bondage.[7] Ecco is "a phase of pre-evolutionary ignorance", Harvest is "living in agrarian harmony with the world", Excess is "the age of unchecked industrial ambition", and Bondage is "an era of engorgement, wherein "we keep making more and more shit until there's no space left."[8]
MYRIAD mainly featured "three-hundred pound sculptures that hang from the ceiling like kebabs that secrete ooze", and a full ensemble that toured to perform songs fromAge Of, including Eli Keszler, Kelly Moran and Aaron David Ross.[5] The sculptures, as well as the visuals displayed on five polygon panels, were created by frequent Oneohtrix Point Never collaborator Nate Boyce.[7] Initially, Lopatin planned for each of the album's four epoches to be represented byfragrances, the more noisy epochs being pleasant to the nose to make a "weird dissonance".[7] However, due to lack of time and resources, that part of the plan was scrapped.[7]
Whereas previous Oneohtrix Point Never albums followed musical styles from only distinctive eras,Age Of is the first album by Lopatin to incorporate elements of unique genres from a variety of periods, hence the "incompleteness" of its title according to reviewer Heather Phares,[9] and his firstpop-song-oriented release since his work forFord & Lopatin.[1]
The sound palettes it uses are those from a variety of styles such aschamber pop,[1] "android"-likefolk andcountry music,[9][10][1]yacht rock,[11]smooth jazz,[11]R&B,[9][1]Future-style soul,[12]black metal,[12]new age,[13] andstadium pop,[12][13] as well aspost-industrial sounds on tracks like "Warning", "We'll Take It" and "Same", and, in particular,baroque music andmedieval music on the opening title track, "Age Of".[13][10] Critics also noted elements of Lopatin's past discography being present onAge Of.[9][13][10]
The instrumentation ofAge Of is made up ofMIDI harpsichords, guitars, pianos, brass and vocals, as well as Lopatin's trademark unorthodox sound design, samples and synth presets.[4] The LP's use of the harpsichord shows its similarities "with Eastern instruments such as thekoto and with rapid-fire electronic melodies", wrote Phares.[9]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10[14] |
| Metacritic | 83/100[15] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[1] |
| Consequence of Sound | B+[11] |
| Mixmag | 9/10[16] |
| Mojo |  [17] |
| The Observer | [18] |
| Pitchfork | 7.8/10[19] |
| Q | [20] |
| Resident Advisor | 4.0/5[10] |
| Uncut | 6/10[21] |
Age Of was critically well-received upon its distribution.[15][14] Some reviewers praised the album's use of collaborators.[13][9][11] Reviewing the album forAllMusic, Heather Phares calledAge Of a "landmark work" for Lopatin.[9] She praised it as his "widest-ranging" release, elaborating that he "matches the album's ambition with plenty of emotion" and "gives his music exciting new shapes."[9] Ross Devlin ofThe Skinny, in a five-star review of the record, also highlighted the album's amount of ambition, particularly the "wealth of exquisitely baroque moments, exploring history as a pliable, multi-dimensional rift", that gave it "exceptional sonic depth".[13]The Observer praisedAge Of for continuing the "off-kilter composition and unexpected instrumentation" of Lopatin's previous releases,[18] and critic Matt McDermott highlighted that the producer increased his musical range with the record: "It's a dizzying trip meant to shore up Lopatin's status as an avant-garde auteur while aiding his forays into mainstream pop culture."[10]
Age Of was ranked the 15th best release of the year inThe Wire magazine's annual critics' poll.[22]
All tracks are written by Daniel Lopatin.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Age Of" | 3:24 |
| 2. | "Babylon" | 3:04 |
| 3. | "Manifold" | 1:49 |
| 4. | "The Station" | 4:19 |
| 5. | "Toys 2" | 4:38 |
| 6. | "Black Snow" | 3:40 |
| 7. | "Myriad Industries" | 1:07 |
| 8. | "Warning" | 2:38 |
| 9. | "We'll Take It" | 3:45 |
| 10. | "Same" | 2:01 |
| 11. | "RayCats" | 3:40 |
| 12. | "Still Stuff That Doesn't Happen" | 4:21 |
| 13. | "Last Known Image of a Song" | 4:06 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 14. | "Trance 1" | 3:54 |
Notes
Sample credits[23]
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exclaim! | Top 10 Dance and Electronic Albums | 5 | |
| Highsnobiety | Top 25 Albums of 2018 | 21 | |
| Mixmag | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 22 | |
| Spin Magazine | Top 51 Albums of 2018 | 10 | |
| The 405 | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 4 | |
| The Wire | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 15 |
| Chart (2018) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[30] | 121 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[31] | 109 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[32] | 72 |
| UK Dance Albums (OCC)[33] | 11 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC)[34] | 13 |
| US Top Current Albums (Billboard)[35] | 59 |
| USHeatseekers Albums (Billboard)[36] | 4 |
| USTop Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[37] | 8 |
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