Welcome back to Split Record Review! This week, James and I will be discussing what might be the most divisive record we’ve tackled yet. Growing up in the early 2010s, one of the biggest musical fads of the time was dubstep. A staple of Minecraft videos and MLG parodies alike, artists like Skrillex were inescapable on the internet for a few years.
While he may seem archaic nowadays, Skrillex was, at one point, one of the biggest artists on the planet. With massive hits like “Bangarang,” Skrillex, aka Sonny Moore, brought his style of overstimulating electronic dance music and enigmatic persona to the top of the world. His look became instantly recognizable: a scrawny white kid with scraggly hair, swooped to one side, thick rimmed glasses and ear gauges.
Contrary to what you might think, Skrillex is still going and staying true to his format. His latest effort, “Fuck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol but Ur Not!! <3,” sounds exactly like what you would expect from the title alone. It’s long-winded and downright confusing.
The opener, “Skrillex is Dead,” sets the tone for the album perfectly. If you grew up listening to FM radio, this track sounds like the prerecorded call signs that play before each commercial break. At just 50 seconds, it somehow overstays its welcome and fails to reach anything remotely close to comedic.
This album sees Skrillex attempt to join dubstep and trap in holy matrimony. The coupling of these two genres feels more like an arranged marriage than love at first sight. The result of this unholy combination is 34 tracks that serve as an exercise in patience.
“Tears Lost Drop” opens with the “shadow wizard money gang” tag front and center, before dropping into the usual bleeps and bloops you would expect from a Skrillex drop, complete with meme soundbites. Though the track is deeply unserious, it’s one of the most listenable on the record.
The album features an ensemble of features from unknowns in the EDM world, to some large names like Dylan Brady of 100 gecs. Skrillex jumps from dubstep infused with SoundCloud-era trap to traditional EDM and 90’s jungle, reminiscent of groups like The Prodigy. Though these nods are fun, they just make me wish I was listening to the artists he’s paying homage to.
Each song barely eclipses a minute long, with a few select tracks surpassing two minutes. One of these longer songs is “Zeet Noise,” featuring Brady. While his work with 100 gecs is goofy fun, his influence doesn’t bring much beyond a pulsating EDM feel, which is definitely a step up from the dubstep status quo on this record.
Though this album has 34 songs, it’s hard to single them out and explain them like the normal format of this column. It’s meandering, dull and sometimes hard to listen to. I can safely say the album is listenable, though that’s a low bar.
If you’re the kind of person who likes mindlessly busy music for studying or background noise, this is an album for you. If you’re not into the styles of the past, this is something that can be skipped.
Rating: 2.5/5
I am not a fan of SKRILLEX but the writeup is lazy, with very poor understanding of EDM and Dubstep and also contradicts itself. The review does not mention the inclusion of diversity and the bold use of erratic rhythm and the smooth transition from dubstep to trap to drum & bass, which is Skrillex unique aesthetic way of making music. The only thing which his fans like me felt was the composition were brief. and tho it contains But this style of creating music is awesome, as these have a potential of being developed, expanded and released.
This is the last record release on his current record label deal. It would be a possibility that, like Prince once did, Skrillex just emptied out his unreleased b-Sides and left over tunes that didn’t make it on any of his other commercial releases. Makes sense to me. One last record, sure here you go and watch me bounce. He was great at UMF Miami 2025. So I see some bigger things coming with his own label.
Voltage was quite literally a scary monsters and nice sprites era of SoundCloud stuff Skrillex had about a decade ago that just now saw the light of day.