Vylet Pony - CUTIEMARKS (And the Things That Bind Us)
Now, to make this explicitly clear, I have nothing against My Little Pony, and I also don't have anything against people using it as songwriting inspiration. (After all, I'd be a hypocrite to claim otherwise.) I get that "brony music" has a bit of a bad reputation, so I want to preface my thoughts with this to make it crystal clear that my issues with this project lie not with its inspirational source material; rather, my problems are entirely in its execution, and in that it feels like a noticeable hiccup in quality.
There are a handful of songs that, while produced quite well, feel out of place alongside the deeply earnest and personal cuts. "SYNDICATE" sounds more like an off-cut from her previous project, Super Pony World: Fairytails, and it's incredibly jarring that it's sandwiched between the cutesy, bubbly, generic "LESBIAN PONIES WITH WEAPONS" and the emotional, grandiose pop piece "WAYFARER." The bass is rich, the drum & bass breakdown section is executed well; the song is good in a vacuum, but its placement on this particular album is puzzling to me. This exact same bookending track problem is also present with "ATYCHIPHOBIA" and, to a lesser extent, "HONEYMOON PHASE."
One other aspect of this album that I find difficult to ignore is that a handful of songs use characters from My Little Pony purely for aesthetic imagery. The easiest example to point to is "ISOMETRICA," which is a song that would entirely be about the artist's own life if not for the occasional shoehorned references to Queen Chrysalis, a la "you really thought a changeling could change?" or the references to writing letters. I take zero issue with Vylet being open about her past experiences, especially with how emotionally raw those songs end up being; rather, I believe this song and many others - for instance, "HARPER" - would have been even more powerful if the lyrics 100% committed to their real-world topics. An example of a song on this album that does commit in this way would be "SEABOUND," which is easily one of the best songs on the album, if not of Vylet's entire discography. The blunt, vulnerable lyrics match perfectly with the lo-fi, intimate aesthetic of the first half, and the passionate vocals of the second half pairing with the production opening up? It was a bit of an aha moment for me as a listener, and it made me wish there were more songs like this on the project.
I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about just how much fun "BONNIE" is. Like, I don't know how else to put this other than "the vibe of it is damn near perfect;" Vylet's in her element with the vocals, and hearing her make a track like this was a pleasant surprise. I'm still not sure how I feel about the transition between the first half and the second half, considering how quickly each of the two halves go by, but they're both wonderful on their own. I'll also point out that even on songs that I loathe, I can't deny just how much drive is put into nearly every vocal performance; the vocals are the one component I will concede is better than nearly every other Vylet album that preceded this one.
I will openly admit that a fair few of my gripes with this project are in comparison with the rest of Vylet's discography. Is the production solid? For the most part, yes, but it's far less consistent than many of her other works. Does it work as a concept album? Sort of, but the concept is really hammered in with the "sing a song about life" sample, and it greatly loses its charm 15 songs in. (This idea worked on Fishmonger, to me, because the album was much shorter, there were more samples being repeated, and none of them were calls to action.) I'm not averse to Vylet making a bold foray into pop music. Quite the contrary, in fact: I think her album Queen of Misfits is a fair bit stronger than CUTIEMARKS simply by nature of using the same specific MLP character - in this case, Trixie - as a means of exploring different subjects rather than relying on the far vaguer idea of "sing a song about life" as a springboard.
Am I coming off harsh? A little bit, perhaps more so than necessary, even; however, it doesn't come from a place of malevolence. Rather, this is coming from someone who's listened to this artist since 2014, seen what they're capable of and can tell that this didn't hit the mark (if you'll forgive the pun). Despite there being much to appreciate about CUTIEMARKS, its noncommittal songwriting and aesthetics hold it back from being truly great.
Track Ratings
THE THINGS THAT BIND US - 10/100
CUTIEMARKS - 45/100
BONNIE - 80/100
ANTONYMPH - 25/100
LESBIAN PONIES WITH WEAPONS - 15/100
SYNDICATE - 50/100
WAYFARER - 60/100
I DON’T NEED TO BE FIXED - 90/100
PROTAGONIST SYNDROME - 50/100
ISOMETRICA - 50/100
NONEXISTENT MEET-CUTE [IDLYAM] - 50/100
ATYCHIPHOBIA - 55/100
HARPER - 65/100
HOW TO KILL A MONSTER - 30/100
IMITATION GAME - 70/100
HONEYMOON PHASE [LIMERANCE] - 5/100
CITY OF THE SILENT - skip
37.6486° N, 122.4296° W [SEABOUND] - 100/100
THE KID WHO KEPT RUNNING - 50/100
Average Song Score - 50/100PRODUCTION: 55/100
PERFORMANCE: 35/100
PERSONALITY: 15/100
OVERALL: 35/100
tl;dr - shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Original Publication InfoLocation: Rate Your MusicTitle: "In a word? Noncommittal."Rating: 2/5 starsDate: 10 December 2021