I know very little of i'll be okay or the artist/band behind it, but I felt compelled to review it after listening through it the first time, just because I feel so neutral about it. In fact, I don't think I've felt so neutral on an album ever, but geez, this album might be the definition of average. It's your typical slowcore endeavor that so many artists have been diving into in the years since Duster came back from their obscure legacy. I read a comment from RYM user acidinyosemite saying it sounded like a satirical take on the TikTok slowcore movement that Duster caused and I certainly hope so. Tracks like "loser monologue" and that awful cover of "Last Friday Night" (yeah, a slowcore cover of Katy Perry, more on that later) make me pray it is ironic in some capacity, but I'm not totally sure if it is. There are some good tracks on here, but their individual merit depends on whether or not you think they're just lifting something off of Duster. Opener "Wish" is a perfect example. It's got a Duster progression AND the simple, yet effective, drums that characterize Duster's music (although they lose their effectiveness completely here). Vocals are whispered too, which isn't at all surprising. The entire album copies Duster in some capacity, but "Wish" certainly does it best. "I just want to hold her" is a standout to me, as poor as the lyrics are. The instrumental is pretty nice, and his vocals are fine when compared to some other tracks. The title brings me back to melanchole, which makes me feel as though Daniel Johann is responsible for this movement in some capacity. None of the other tracks are really anything terribly special, but I do want to come back to that "Last Friday Night" cover, because it's a standout as well, just for different reasons. It harkens back to Xiu Xiu's unsettling cover of "Fast Car," but falls short of the mark Jamie Stewart set (to be fair, it's a very high bar to reach). The whispery, frail vocals? The sparse instrumentation? C'mon, he's trying to be Xiu Xiu. It sounds so out of place on the album, and it's just plain bad. It's easily the worst song on here. "I threw a rock off an overpass and killed a guy" is a cool song, if you ignore the title. It feels like it's being edgy for the sake of being edgy. I like the sound collage aspect of it and it works super well as a closer, but it's certainly nothing I would listen to on my own time.
This is a fine album. I like slowcore, which is probably the only reason I enjoyed it at all. I definitely don't recommend this album, but it doesn't hurt to listen if slowcore is your thing.
RATING: 2.5/5
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