CD Haul #2: Illenium

For my second CD haul, I decided to purchase Illenium's 2023 Self-Titled album! As you may know, I am a huge Illenium fan, and I'd been wanting to finally get one of his albums! It's only fitting that I get the album that got me into his music! Unfortunately, this is the only album being sold on Illenium's official online store, but hopefully soon we'll get new copies of older albums too! Anyway, here's what I think of the CD:

Unlike CD Haul #1, where I bought The Guess Who's greatest hits collection at a thrift store, I bought this album online! The thing that isn't so fun about buying CDs online, is that you have to wait a few days or even weeks, and then you already know what you're getting. However, getting a CD is always fun, no matter how it's purchased! This CD came in great condition! It was in nice shrink wrap, and there were no cracks on the case or scratches on the disc! Although I had to reach out to the store's management team for updates, everything came in nicely, and they were very professional about my order! The only thing that isn't so great about this CD is that when I try to pull the booklet out so I could read it, it was very difficult to do without it getting damaged. However, that tends to happen pretty frequently with brand new CDs, so I don't worry about it too much.

Illenium's self-titled album has received a lot of negative feedback from music fans and critics, but I've honestly never had anything against this album. Sure, maybe I'm a little biased with the album being what got me into his music, but there are genuinely some cool songs on here. I also believe this is Illenium's heaviest album! While his first 3 or 4 albums seemed to focus more on melody, self-titled took a sharp turn and showed Illenium beginning to focus on heavy beat drops more! With that said, there is plenty of melodic dubstep in this album, but for someone like me who prefers the heavier dubstep songs, this album is great! I also find it remarkable how many collaborations with non-EDM artists are involved in this album! For example, you've got singers like Teddy Swims and Skylar Grey, metalcore bands like Spiritbox and Motionless In White, and then you've got pop-punk stars Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker on the same track! A crazy amount of people to put in one album, but it works great! 

Songs I really liked on this album include "Starfall", "All That Really Matters (feat. Teddy Swims)", "Shivering (feat. Spiritbox)", "You Were Right (feat. Grabbitz and Wooli)", and "Nothing Ever After (feat. Motionless In White)!" There's something for everybody on this album though, so be sure to check it out! For one of my next articles, I plan on ranking all 5 of Illenium's albums, so be sure to check it out when it drops! - Elliott Dudoit