In the past few years, electronic music has grown increasingly popular. With genres ranging from dubstep to hardstyle, it gets confusing knowing what an artist labels themselves as. Flying Lotus is no different, with his unique fusion sound being called “psychedelic electronic.”

While Flying Lotus isn’t as well-known as other electronic artists such as Zedd, Skrillex, and others, he has been making a name for himself these past years. Flying Lotus released his fifth studio album titled, “You’re Dead!” on Oct. 6.

The album features rap superstars Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. Along with the collaborations, he has a few tracks that feature his rap alter-ego Captain Murphy. As a long-time fan of Flying Lotus, I was very excited to finally listen to this album. However, after listening to the first few tracks, I was already able to tell that this album was going to differ greatly to his past work.

The album is made up of 19 songs, and the album is only 38 minutes long from start to finish. At the beginning of his album, it consists of a concoction of noises that prepares its listeners for the journey it’s going to take them on. 

The obvious theme of this album is death, and the beginning of the album alludes to Flying Lotus not realizing he is now in the afterlife. Flying Lotus decided to make death the theme of his newest album because of he has had to deal with untimely deaths of friends and family members.

Each of these introductory tracks are around two minutes long, leading up to the single “Never Catch Me,” featuring Kendrick Lamar. This single track is able to make this album worth listening to. Kendrick Lamar’s fast-paced rap style combined with the amazing production of Flying Lotus will leave its listeners in awe. The phrase, “Never Catch Me,” has to do with the theme of death, and is about choosing to continue to run from an inevitable demise that we must all face.

As the album progresses, Flying Lotus begins to show his listeners that he realizes that this life he is currently living may not be real. “Dead Man’s Tetris” featuring Snoop Dogg continues to carry this dark theme which changes the mood of the rest of the album. 

In his past albums, Flying Lotus had centralized his music around the sound of jazz and hip-hop, but “You’re Dead!” makes it evident what he thinks a new-age jazz album should sound like.

With this obscure form of electronic hip-hop combined with jazz, anyone who listens to this will say that this album is something unlike anything they’ve heard before.  This album is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys hip-hop, jazz, electronic music, or simply wants to get a taste of what Flying Lotus has to offer. Flying Lotus has once again changed the face of his music, and this album is a great representation of Flying Lotus trying to break away from the norms of music we are used to hearing.