Album Review : Backxwash - His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering (2022)
I have this concept of "rainy day music". Records and artists you listen to whenever you have negative emotions to exorcise. It is meant to make you feel better by letting the devils out. British Industrial Black Metal band Anaal Nathrakh is my quintessential are my quintessential example of rainy day music, but Montreal-based cutting edge rapper Backxwash is one of the rare newer artists who gained this title of nobility. She's brooding and intense, but longing for a better understanding of her inner darkness.
Her new album His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering is a crowning moment in this quest. I don't know how she did it, but she got even better.
How is it even possible for Backxwash to best her powerhouse I Lie Here Buried with My Rings and My Dresses? Well, His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering has more scope, both emotionally and musically. There’s a wider range of emotion in her delivery and more textures and moods in her beats. If I Lie Here was a scream of desperate anger and misery, His Happiness is a painful introspection. The kind that is required to grow stronger and build yourself up amidst all the pain.
His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering begins with the intro Kutali, featuring an answering machine message made by a character named Pastor Steve, set to the keyboards of dungeon synth artist Vaelastrasz. It’s lush and otherworldly and Pastor Steve (the representative of God) announcing his absence sets the tone for the absolute monster song that is Vibanda. It will hit you in the face as hard as the title song from I Lie Here did last year, I'm telling you.
Vibanda is one of the most vibrant, heartbreaking things I've heard all year. Set to a chorus that feels more like a self-punishing litany, the song explores feelings of longing and crippling imperfection that plagues a young, artistic mind. Backxwash savantly interweaves religious and horror imagery to create feeling of being torn between heaven and hell. Of being unfairly split between what you want and what’s expected of you. That hit me right in the feels. Because I fucking know what it feels like too.
Oh, did I tell you Vibanda was (partly) set to a sample of FUCKING MOZART’S REQUIEM? It WORKS and it works beautifully. A simple, but efficient idea that gave me goosebumps and imbued her words with the necessary urgency.
I was already emotionally exhausted after one song, but His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering hit me right back with Nyama, a collaboration with the excellent Pupil Slicer that leans more on the heavier, noisier side of Backxwash. It's a logical successor to the song I Lie Here even if thematically, it doesn't hit quite the same notes. Nyama explores feelings of guilt driven again by imperfections and desires that are incompatible with one’s upbringing. It's extremely dark, but also cathartic.
The other monster, skull crushing track on the record is, in my opinion, Juju. What makes it so powerful is the chorus, which is one of the best verbalisation of insecurities I ever heard. Both Backxwash and her guest Ghais Guevara have their own personal spin on it, giving it this universal character. All the lines of the chorus hit hard (especially to this beautiful, melancholic piano sample, but the last two in Backxwash’s version really hit me the hardest and, I believe, exemplify what insecurity really is:
Maybe I shoulda said something,
Maybe I shouldn’t say nothing
The vibration of the universe
Can we take a moment to appreciate the sound of Backxwash's voice and her uncanny gift for interpretation? Because she steps up that part of her game too on His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering. The anger and relentlessness of I Lie Here gives place to such a wide array of nuances: exhaustion, frustration, longing, sneering, love, etc. The beats are cutting edge on this record too, but what makes Backxwash so exciting and powerful is the souls she puts into her songs. It’s palpable. Vibrant.
On a song like Muzungu that has more typical Backxwash beat, it’s really her heavy, exasperated delivery that sells the feeling of desire for self-exorcism. At some points it feels like her voice even breaks. This is a level of commitment to art that is uncommon. Same goes for Kumoto, where the noise-influenced beat really serves a the narrative purpose of exploring the feelings of disassociation in the song. Backxwash really mastered on this record the art of balancing musical and lyrical narrativity. It's an emotional journey.
*
His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering is all that I want from music, really: weight, emotion, unpredictability and even a tale of drawing power from one's own darkness. It is not casual listening by any means. In true Backxwash fashion, you need to have shit to exorcise in order to press play. But does it do the job or what? The Queen of Industrial Hip-Hop perfected the art of rainy day music with this album. I’m glad that it exists. It's something that needs to exist. It’s music with true healing power.
