Damien Morris 

Vegyn: The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions review – steely relentlessness and glossy melodies

An engaging, 90s trip-hop-inspired turn from the English producer combines fractured storytelling and long instrumental passages
  
  

Vegyn
‘More engaging’: Vegyn. Photograph: Joshua Gordon

Thirty-year-old English producer Joe Thornalley (son of ex-Cure bassist Phil) is best known for working with Frank Ocean, back when the singer made albums. Thornalley’s second Vegyn outing develops the chilly, dance-adjacent sound he debuted on Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds. This time, we get more singers and better-structured songs. Nothing as pretty as 2019’s Debold, but it feels like his most accessible project so far – far more engaging than Headache, his recent AI-performed side hustle.

The preponderance of sharp drum breaks on The Road to Hell… is reminiscent of 90s trip-hop – the brighter, trancey west-coast US productions, rather than smoky Brooklyn-via-Bristol beats. It gives his work a steely relentlessness that plays nicely against a glossy melody, especially on Léa Sen’s lovely Turn Me Inside and John Glacier’s murmuring, insistent A Dream Goes On Forever. Ambitious single Halo Flip is a good bellwether for the album. If you enjoy its combination of fractured storytelling and long instrumental passages, you’ll appreciate the consistent quality of the simpler songs around it.

Watch the video for Halo Flip by Vegyn featuring Lauren Auder.
 

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