REVIEW: Skylar Spence's Prom King (2015)
The first album length release from Ryan DeRobertis since his stellar long player Hit Vibes under the moniker SAINT PEPSI, this release under acclaimed label Carpark has since become flagship for not only DeRobertis himself but also the underground future funk and pop scenes, with hits such as Fiona Coyne amassing an incredible 21 million streams on Spotify and instrumental grooves such as "Bounce is Back" having 2 and a half million streams since the album's release.
This album shows DeRobertis stepping in new directions for his music with the welcome addition of him singing - establishing the New York based producer as a sampling god, a fantastic singer-songwriter and producer. Examples of this are littered throughout the album, particularly on radio friendly ditties such as "Can't You See" and the titular track "Prom King" both of which are personal favorites of mine, starting Prom King off excellently.
Throughout the middle of the album, a range of musical influences are called upon (particularly house, indie and also his own sample based work which is still extremely popular) creating diversions musically and keeping the album fresh, exciting and ready for any kind of optimistic occasion. This is something I mentioned before (in my review of Hit Vibes a little while ago) but this only proves that his production style has stayed irresistibly catchy, awesome and despite the changes largely evident in his later work (including this album) there's a subjective quality in his work which is why he is valued and seen as an extremely important figure in a plethora of scenes.
Take tracks six and seven as examples of the change in styles throughout this album - "Fall Harder" is a disco pop romance anthem that wouldn't sound too out of place in a teen drama series or an exciting adventure movie.
"Bounce is Back" is a house track stuffed with small samples and tight production, mirroring that of Todd Edwards and other house music legends. This is also a huge callback to not just his previous sample based work, but also a huge homage in its own right to the future funk and vaporwave scenes where he found his footing as a producer.
The last few tracks on Prom King consist of similar ditties, all of which have their own feel to them, rounding out the album nicely as a wonderful long player from Skylar.
Overall, this album is a fantastic piece of work and to this day I still listen to it regularly, despite not initially being a fan of pop music whatsoever. It was a great surprise and an amazing listening experience.
You can listen to it on Spotify and buy it from Bandcamp either digitally, on CD or on gold / black vinyl.
Rating - 9/10
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