I LOVE the album! Am I the only one?
[This is going to be long. I'm very passionate😭]
I am a very new fan. I've only known about Domi and JD for about two-ish weeks. Learned about them around the time "Who Asked?", released and when the Rick Beato interview clips were posted.
That is to say, I listened to their new album kind of in a vacuum. I knew almost nothing about them or their style or even really what they looked like. I just saw a few clips of them talking and thought they were intriguing.
I listened to their album and immediately thought it was incredible! I'm not going to lie and say I fully understood it but I immediately connected to it. I find “Who Asked?”, to be wonderfully complex and dense, amorphous, confusing, destabilizing, chaotic, and at times even frustrating. Which excites me to no end!! Music being challenging and confusing, to me, is an indication of truly boundary pushing and cutting edge art! It's a chance to look at that confusion and frustration through a lens of curiosity and lean into it. Find some answers as to why the music is the way it is (or maybe, even more excitingly, find more questions!! ). A new chance to broaden your artistic palate! It's ELECTRIFYING!!
Since then, I have become pretty obsessed with the album and have found Domi and JD Beck’s perspective in interviews to be very interesting. I've been listening to the album non-stop for weeks. I like and understand it more with every listen. At this point all the songs feel very distinct while still having similar sonic palates; they fit and flow together very nicely. I enjoy every song on the record, front to back! I also find the album to be so cosy :D (I've been so in love with it that before I go to bed I think about how excited I am to get to wake up and listen to the album again😭)
So, because I've been literally buzzing with excitement I went online to nerd out and gush about this album with other fans. I assumed that Domi and JD fans must be overjoyed with the release bc it was so well made and interesting. And to my surprise… the album has received almost universally negative reviews?? Like, it has a 5.8 on pitchfork, a 2.86 on RYM, all the YouTube reviews I've seen are negative, a huge chunk of their YouTube comments are people mad and complaining, and even this subreddit is mostly negative. I am genuinely perplexed by it. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. And this isn't me trying to feel cool by saying “I get it and you don't bc I'm different and special and really smart”. I truly adore this album, and thought others would feel the same. I'm kinda bummed out that that isn't the case :/
All of the aspects of the album that I love (the singing, mixing, lyrics, dense instrumentation, meandering/difficult song structures, constant shifting, having to be attentive to flow with the music, etc) have been used as negatives in reviews. Everything that I think is innovative and brilliant about the album are the things that fans say make the album a failure. And I'm just…???? Idk if it's because the bubble of the Internet I normally inhabit is the experimental electronic/musical fusion/borderline performance art side. I'm talking björk, arca, etc. The space tends to be full of women, queer, trans, neurodivergent, poc, and just generally open minded, people. Like, Arca could release an album rn that sounds like someone getting murdered while a car crash happens in the background and the beat is made out of forks scraping on porcelain plates and we'd be like “Yes!! mother! She's sooo back! Diva experimentalllll!!!” And it would be genuine.
Which is why entering the Domi and JD fandom has been such a culture shock so far. Because the album is challenging and boundary pushing, yes. But I've seen so many discussions of the album make it out to seem unlistenable, illegible, and an utter failure. It just makes no sense to me. From my perspective it is weird, chaotic, complex, pretty sounding, sweet, filled with emotion, passionate, intentional, obviously well made, and just …good. People are acting like this album killed their grandma 😭. I've been scouring the Internet for positive reviews (I have found 4 total, one is a recent post on this subreddit 😭) and have found so many instances of fans being MAD. Like genuinely. Borderline foaming at the mouth. Throwing fits!! It's so strange. And, to be clear, I'm not saying not liking the album or negative criticism is a bad thing. It's actually a very good thing. But why are people loathsome? It's like the fans were entitled to the album they created in their heads and the real music didn't match. Now people are acting like they've been cheated. Like..it's going to be okay, I promise. 😭 Lighten up a little.
If Björk dropped this album today, her fans would rejoice (me included). It would be called boundary pushing, beautiful, and yet, still accessible. But this fandom seems to not appreciate it much. It feels like Domi and JD have grown and the fans have not. They're just kinda close minded and rigid :/ (from what I've seen). D and JD got a little too weird and wacky with it and now the fans are scared. It feels like that ‘Back to the Future’ quote, “I guess you guys aren't ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”
But anyway, does anyone else also feel this way? I passionately like the album. I feel like I'm in an alternate reality. It's like that meme where there's a group of people in a pool. All of them have peed in the pool and they're pointing and laughing at the one person who hasn't peed in the pool 😭
TL;DR: Recently heard about Domi and JD. Knew nothing about them. Listened and LOVED “Who Asked?”. Became kind of obsessed. Went online to nerd out with other fans. Found out, almost everyone hates the album. Feels like I'm in the twilight zone. I think the album is obviously brilliant, most of the fandom thinks it's an utter failure. I'm very confused. Am I the only one who likes the album? Do others feel this way? Please tell me there are others!!