From the back of the room, the picture is clear...

“Diamond Life 2” is a calculated sum of disparate parts, a musical mosaic in which jagged pieces of genre produce a cohesive whole that is as focused as it is varied. Like the edges of its pieces, each contribution from the broad but carefully curated scope of collaborators is pointed and intentional. Collaborators that include 8485, blackwinterwells, Cindytalk, Darcy Baylis, Donovan Melero (Hail the Sun), Don Devore (Ink & Dagger, Collapsing Scenery), Chris Taylor (pageninetynine), Fleming Valenzuela (Modern Color), GFOTY, Hoodwtch, Jaye Naima, jeancantskate, Judy Mitchell (Record Setter), Kid Trash, Kitty, Knife Girl, Kreayshawn, Lord Byron, Lucy Lohan, Matthew Embree (RxBandits), Meredith Ramond (Soft Blue Shimmer), Petal Supply, Sam Ray (Teen Suicide), Seth Babb (Funeral Diner), Steve Choi (RxBandits, Lil Peep), Tanukichan, and wstdyth.

Hospital Gown is the multifaceted vision of Dallas, TX songwriter/producer Rich Loren Balling (The Sound of Animals Fighting, Pyramids), who emerged from a long period of debilitating anxiety to craft a cathartic narrative traversing themes of nostalgia, regret, depression, fatherhood, human idiosyncrasy, and gender normality, delivered through a penchant for pop, classic screamo, and electronic musics.

Always almost tearing from the sonic fabric but never quite, the 14 songs on “Diamond Life 2” take taut strands of programmed drum beats, trance synths, and midwest emo guitars, and weave them into a glitching tapestry that appeals to even the most selective electronic pop, indie pop, and hyper pop enthusiasts, a nuanced undertaking akin to gluing together shards of shattered American Football, Postal Service, Orchid, and 100 Gecs records. Mixed by Knife Girl, and Daniela Rivera (Rihanna, Selena Gomez), and mastered at Metropolis London by Stuart Hawkes (Charli XCX, Stormzy).

From the back of the room the picture is clear...
It’s been a shit year, and you feel compelled to move closer.

Hospital Gown Tote Bag