GutterPutter

Teezo Touchdown is the stage name of Aaron Lashane Thomas, a singer-songwriter and rapper from Texas who had long pursued a career in music since around 2010. Jumping through disparate genres since his childhood alongside working with different musicians provide Thomas with a highly varied style for his artistry. This range of influences that spans from hip hop to alt-pop to R&B to pop rock makes for a peculiar bricolage of an artist who ventures toward completely different sounds. This eclecticness had at one point led Pitchfork to decry him and one of his singles in 2019 as being weird in an implicitly industry plant sort of way. Maybe there’s some jealousy going on when, at 30 years old at the time of writing, he got his big break over the past few years with Tyler, the Creator and some modelling for GQ?

How Do You Sleep at Night? is not some phone-in attempt of a debut. Instead, it’s clear proof that Teezo Touchdown is highly driven in his pursuit to become a music artist. This is most apparently shown in the production which, given his many experiences making beats for underground emcees before, is indicative of his ears for what makes songs pleasant. ’OK’ kicks the whole album off with the clean instrumentation comparable to pop punk with a nicely layered, infectious chorus coming through. ‘UUHH’ enjoys some dub-like reverberations on its percussion which compliments the more gravelly singing for each chorus. Then you have the more new wave-like vibes on ‘Impossible’ where the more subdued bassline and guitar riff helps take control of the song. Say what you want with the rest of the album, but you can’t deny that Thomas has a serious gift for setting what makes hits click with listeners.

This doesn’t always excuse much of what makes most of the album a tiresome listen at times. Because Teezo Touchdown uses a wide variety of genres, it’s a bit of a nice challenge to try and sum up what best describes this record (hint – it’s not fully experimental). There are more effective examples like ‘Sweet’ where its R&B style highlights a moody end to the relationship, the arena rock nostalgia that vibrates from ‘Stranger’, or the flat out funkiness of ‘Mood Swings’. They’re a pretty pleasant listen to check out even if they might not have felt as potentially strong in a way that they could’ve been. For some drawback, ‘You Thought’ lacks the knack that comes with mixing R&B with alternative rock, ‘Nu Nay’ doesn’t work out all too well as the token disco track, and ‘Too Easy’ offers the certain cringeness that’s best compared to Lil Pump’s ‘Pump Rock x Heavy Metal’. Cohesion isn’t in the agenda for making this album.

There’s a notable theme which points toward the reward of diligence, chasing your dreams, and family which is noble for sure. Yet, there are numerous points where it can come off as whiny. You can feel its strongest use in ‘Familiarity’ which tells a story of Thomas going against the safer wishes of his family in favour of his musical ambitions. The way that the subdued trap beat syncs with the staccato guitar notes adds bliss to the chill atmosphere as Teezo sings of disliking his blue-collar work while affirming his confidence that he’ll achieve his dreams. It’s a clear highlight to me and it’s one that I can easily imagine taking root in viral sites like TikTok in a few months’ time. There’s a hint of it in ‘OK’, but ‘Familiarity’ is the cathartic climax that needs to be listened to if you want a more conventional pop song to check out. It’s corny, but in a charmingly kitschy way where the cliche adds to what makes it lovable.

On the other hand, you have ‘Daddy Mama Drama’ which feels like one of those meandering emo rap songs that you might have listened to at times with no sentiments. You might hear of the usual stories like gradual estrangement or, but this is where the usual production strength feels too over the top. The constant layering of Teezo’s vocals reaches the point of artificiality and the folksy beginning consequently doesn’t offer the sombre feelings that it could’ve. ‘Neighbourbood’ is a pretty catchy, if miserable, experience that tries to execute the dissonance between the downtrodden lyrics with upbeat instrumentation with meh-ish feelings. Lastly, you have ‘The Original Was Better’ where there’s this constant inference that Thomas had finally achieved his goal and is consequently the “director” he’s wondering about. Suffice to say, it can feel annoying for sure with the humblebragging and the EDM drop doesn’t hit as hard as what one would’ve suspected.

Outside of a handful of more relationship-focused materials like ‘I Don’t Think U C Me’, How Do You Sleep at Night? is in many ways as colourful as Teezo’s vision. Even if there are parts that he would have looked to either tone down the whininess or the experimentations, this is not as bad a listen as what I expected. Enjoyers of genre-defying acts like Gorillaz, Modest Mouse, or “Weird Al” Yankovic might enjoy this album although I suspect the latter fanbase are more prepared to enjoy the non-artsy intent of the record. Even then, the best parts should prove the strengths that makes Thomas stand out as a late bloomer compared to his contemporaries. Feel free to check this record out and keep your eyes peeled on his later works even if this could’ve been better.