The Pop Corporation

Low energy delivery and genre hopping between a twee take on Drill, and like, early Noughties indie pop? If you want to feel ancient, you might need to put Feng’s new album on. And no, we don’t really know what genre it is.

See, this music sounds like something that young people get mega excited about and rack up plays on Soundcloud – and obviously, that’s a great thing – but man, the hairs on our head and back started turning grey simply being in the presence of this music. You find yourself wondering if you can tell the difference between disaffected cool and can’t be arsed anymore. Which is it? Maybe it’s both?

We’re treated to lines like “I’m cold even when I’m in the summer” and you shrug – fine, whatever – and then you get “a girl, but like a dude” and you wonder if you should be offended by it, or whether that’s exactly the kind of thing some square music critic would get uppity about while Feng and his mates get smashed on cheap liquor.

Is it a pastiche, mocking hustle culture, or is it a product of it that loves it? We’re aware that Feng skips between London and Los Angeles, which at least means he’s doing alright for himself, but so jaded is he with those around him, you almost wish he was skulking in a corner and sharpening his pen to rat some of these bastards out – instead, he’s wryly looking at everything and saying “we’ll be alright”.

Okay, we guess?

On track we’re told “How do I say this? I’m teenage famous” and we feel like we’re having a teenager explain why they watch unboxing videos on YouTube for hours at a time, or why they’re absolutely fine with a life of microtransactions.

This is of course, not to say that this is a criticism. We’re not the audience. This is aimed at other people gurgling at memes, eating cigarettes for lunch, and using Snapchat. Yeah, that‘s back, don’t you know?

It feels like Feng is sleepwalking his way to some huge sellout shows, and you’ll walk past some massive queue at a mid-sized venue, and wonder who the hell he is and what the hell is going on, before finding out about viral videos of people making jacket potatoes and Mr Beast game shows that seem like human bear-baiting.

It is almost like the very medium in which you’re taking all this in, is out-dated compared to Feng’s world. Reading words? On a website? There’s probably a host of ‘Weekend Rockstar’ reviews on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. The TL;DR crew aren’t going to bother with something as stoopid as reading a bunch of words from someone who doesn’t get them or the music they’re listening to.

And the thing is, some of the beats start out pretty good – a mildly psychedelic take on hip hop – but it appears that the low-energy offered is the energy that Feng fans want, so asking the music to kick on is a silly thing to ask it to do. ‘Cali Crazy’ starts off like it could be cool and interesting, and then is just zones out before reaching the two-minute mark.

We don’t resent this album at all – and we quite liked the feeling of being woefully out-of-step with whatever it is. Will we listen to this album again? Probably not, but then, it feels like it didn’t want us to bother it with our presence in the first place.

In an interview, when asked why he started making music, the answer was: “I was just bored and had nothing else better to do.”

That’s it. That’s the vibe.