by Gabriel Fars
Making deals with the devil, the embarrassment of still living with your mom, being a drunken man-child–This album really is about the important things in life. The things that you think about when you’re sad and still awake late at night when all you can do is stare up at your roof and pray that your brain will shut up so that you can just. Go. To. Sleep.
Magic Hate Ball is an incredibly raw album, but not in the way you might have expected. Shoehole presents their lyricism and music as a form of vulnerability and the honest truth about human emotions. Even down to the chords and rough guitar strums, you can hear a wave of aggression behind the music. Even the choice of tone in the lead singer’s voice is intentionally as angry as possible, even cracking at some spots because of the emotion put into it. Guitar parts that, at some spots, seem to imitate that cracking and can sound distorted or gargled at times. Although it can come across as a bit excessive, the distortion does seem to add something to the anger in the music, perhaps further expressing the absolute blind fucking rage of the album.
It’s the type of album you listen to when you’re debating whether or not everyone in your life hates you or if you just need some new meds and a nap. Going through some of my favorite tracks from the album, that fact just becomes more clear to me.
Whether you’re still thinking about that one situation you never really got over, or if you’re going through some serious post-nut clarity, “It Probably Wasn’t Worth It” is the song for you.
“I always thought that the future would hold some better feelings, but I just feel old.” The lyrics on the track “DUDE! SHUT UP!!” are just a bundle of relatability.
This album leaves you feeling as though even after you turn it off, you take a small part of it with you, and I think that if you want an album that just feels completely and entirely fucking raw, this is it.