I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You, released November 10, is an album by YouTube rapper Quadeca. Despite carrying the title “YouTube rapper” that now holds a fairly negative connotation, he seems to have jumped many of the hurdles others fail at, sporting deeper lyricism than almost all his peers, and, while wearing his influences on his sleeve, pulls off a decently unique sound.

 In essence, this album is a mix of  genres like electronic, folk, rap, shoegaze and Midwest emo topped with glitchy and fuzzy production that makes most songs sound grand and emotional. All of this combines to make one of the best albums of this year

This revelation comes as a surprise to many, as this is a huge step up from anything he’s done prior. His last album, From Me To You, was fairly mediocre and had only a few songs I would call “good”. Though it did include a few tracks that hinted to the beautiful chaos that was to come. The best example would be Sisyphus, an amazing song with an explosive ending that we would see commonly in IDMTHY 

Without spoiling too much, IDMTHY has Quadeca take on a concept album where he plays the part of his own ghost as he looks in frustration at what that means. It explores ideas  of guilt, death and fear in a mature and elegant way with well-written lyrics 

The opening track sorry4dying starts slow, taking on an atmospheric feel that includes horns, strings and synths then transitions into a quicker, more chaotic, sound that has Quadeca repeating  the phrase “next thing you know”  as it leads back into a softer ending. It’s a perfect introduction to the album, as it covers a lot of the sounds you hear later on from the more melancholy slowness of fantasy world and picking up hands, to the aggressive and dirty sounds of knots and house settling. 

The next track tell me a joke takes a little turn into larger soundscapes full of synths and hard hitting percussion. The ending is a little overwhelming, with loud thunderous drums and distortion building to a point that is just beautiful. It’s an amazing follow up and is honestly top three on the album

With all that being said, this is where I’ll leave it to you, I highly recommend going out and seeing the rest of it for yourself. 

8.5/10

Highlights: tell me a joke / born yesterday / knots

Lowlights: don’t mind me