Drunk music review Review by Kate Robertson Kate Robertson accidentally got drunk on a Sunday afternoon and re-reviewed an album she’d already done a reasonably good job of writing about sober.
Topograph
Thomston 4/5
Thomston 7/5
If the name Thomston means nothing to you, now is the time for you to tap in and start paying attention. After months of build-up NZ’s newest soon-to-be-superstar’s debut LP Topograph is now available on all platforms, and it’s a 13 song moody alt-pop dream. There’s something very raw about the autobiographical nature of Thomston’s music. A storyteller, he’s lived through enough emotions for all of us combined and could quite well forge a successful career as a poet if music doesn’t work out. Opening with the echoey instrumental “Survey (Preface)”, Thomston sets the tone of the album with an intro that could bring a tear to your eye and proceeds to roll effortlessly into the achingly beautiful “Float”. From there the listener is taken for a journey through love and loss, all the while being prodded with a bunch of emotions coming-of-age humans know all too well—fear, vulnerability, anxiety, and the unknown. The album moves in rolling waves. Nothing is disjointed and everything feels exactly where it’s meant to be. You can feel that everything is there for a reason. The songs are effortlessly haunting, filled with depth, and intense as fuck. Thomston is yet to put a foot wrong: his perfect social media has created him an incredibly cool brand, he’s moved in on an already over-saturated genre but been able to bring something much more complex and thoughtprovoking, and has won the hearts of his fans—a must when you acknowledge the fact that dedicated fans are the driving force behind any artist. His music is current, but will land across a number of demographics. There’s something for mums, dads, sex friends, and best friends. If you stumble across someone who passionately despises this album, they’re not worth your time—even a moron is capable of appreciating the emotional labour an album such a this requires.
The new Thomston album is rad. Thomston is a 20year old boy genius who is managed by Lorde’s old management team Saiko Management—he is a baby Lorde (but not really cause he’s probably still older than her). Riding the NZ/AUS synth-pop wave, Thomston is less synthy than other people around at the moment (like Theia, Glades, Broods, and others) which is cool because it’s kind of everywhere right now, but his music is still super tight with quality production value. Like so fucking good. He’s already got heaps of fans all over the world, but if you jump on the bandwagon now you can probably still pass it off as being on the first wave of fandom and brag about it to all your friends in two years’ time when he’s taking over the world. “Float” and “Birthmark” are the best songs on the album because there are heaps of feels. “Float” was released as a single prior to Topograph’s release and has one of the year’s most cinematically beautiful videos. 10/10, would recommend. “Birthmark” is great not only because of feels, but also because it has a booming chorus that is super powerful and dramatic against the chill verses. As someone who is perpetually single, and only really deals with fucbois, these songs still cut deep despite being in no way relatable. “Collarbones” was the banger that set it all off back in 2015 on his first EP (Backbone); an EP he followed with moody Spotify successes “Burning Out”, “Motley Crew”, and the most beautiful of them all, “Window Seat”, features indie it-girl Wafia. Almost all of these are on Topograph which is fantastic. Topograph is a super cool album and Thomston is a very talented dude. Even if you don’t like this kind of music you should listen to it anyway because he is from New Zealand and if you don’t you are not being patriotic and may as well go buy yourself a Wallabies jersey. 39
Music
Topograph