2022 album by Jean Dawson
Chaos Now (stylized as CHAOS NOW*) is the third studio album by experimental pop musician Jean Dawson, released on October 7, 2022, by the artist's label P+. The album was announced August 19 along with the release of single "Three Heads", with a music video directed by Bradley J. Calder, as well as the artist's first US headlining tour. "Porn Acting" was released as a prior single on February 27, third single "Pirate Radio" followed on September 16, fourth single "Sick of It" released September 29, and fifth single "Bad Fruit" featuring Earl Sweatshirt was released October 5.
Background.
In an interview with Maxine Wally for "W", Dawson admitted difficulty with completing the album. He spent months in his bedroom in Inglewood, California working on it, comparing his room to "those movies where a dude is trying to figure out a crime and they have pieces of yarn connected to pins on the wall." He also admitted to scrapping two previous versions of the album, one which resembled an EP which Dawson says he "vehemently" hates, and the other because it wasn't "profound enough. I was just saying words."
The album's and song's names are all stylized in all caps with an asterisk on the end. Dawson described the asterisk as "the way I use periods. Instead of it being like a mundane little dot, it's like a firework."
Style and reception.
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, "Chaos Now" received "" based on a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 from 4 critic scores.
"Clash"'s James Mellen calls the album "a shapeshifting creation, blasting through acoustic balladry, hip-hop elements and frantic distorted guitars." Mellen considers "Glory" "a song ready for arenas" with "reverb-soaked drums matched by the heavy guitars" and "Dawson's searing vocals"; says "Bad Fruit", featuring "alternative hip hop heavyweight" Earl Sweatshirt, "is a softer number on the album" with "sombre guitar work", orchestral passages, and "twinkling percussion" adding "a cinematic dimension to the track"; calls closing track "Pirate Radio" "a beautiful acoustic moment spurred on by delicate guitars and folk-tinted strings and wind sections"; and closes by saying the album "took everything that made "Pixel Bath" so incredible and just elevates it."
"DIY"'s Emma Swann calls the album "an exhilarating meeting of grunge, pop-punk and indie with hip hop rhythms", comparing to "Beck if he'd used a palette of early '00s MTV2." Swann further compares "Three Heads" as "mak[ing] like Bloc Party's "Helicopter" at slow speed to soundtrack a nu metal vocal break", "0-Heroes" as "giv[ing] Nirvana guitars a stadium-sized chorus", says "Screw Face" and "Porn Acting" "could've fallen right out of Fidlar's catalogue", and notes "a smirk towards Billie Eilish's "Bury a Friend" amid the industrial glitches" of "Kids Eat Pills". Swann concludes by quoting intro track "*" where Dawson asks "Fuck y'all looking at?", saying "A superstar, is the answer."
In a more negative review, "The Line of Best Fit"'s Kyle Kohner says that Dawson "stagnates in the groove of his zany musical habits". While Dawson "communicates what it means and what it could look like to embrace your inner-outsider", Kohner feels "often left waiting for that sentiment to manifest in full musically, by subverting genre conventions with a foot unflinchingly pressed on the proverbial gas pedal of experimentalism." "Chaos Now" is "not the genre-eliminating record that [Dawson] had declared it to be and that many had hoped for", instead adopting "the same scraped-together, playlist-emulating approach with little-to-no push to be even weirder."
Track listing.
Notes
References.
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