ALBUM REVIEW: I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME – ‘GLOOM DIVISION’

So did anyone expect Brendon Urie to be outlasted by his former bandmates? Apparently Viva Las Vengeance was just that much of career-killer that it’s left scope for some of the Panic! At The Disco NPCs that used to be behind him to take the reins.

The truth is, there’s more in common between Dallon Weekes’ iDKHOW and Panic! At The Disco than there is differences. Both became shorn down to the influence of a single key creative; both talk up an element of glossy classicism in their work; and both have a tendency to show off a cavalier streak when both of those things interlock. For Urie, that was flat, sexless Queen pastiche Viva Las Vengeance, an album that no one liked, and for which the decision to give it a full live airing on the last Panic! At The Disco tour seemed like a decision motivated by spite than anything else. Weekes, meanwhile, has been significantly less heavy-handed. His own classic pop and rock instincts have found solace behind a filter rather than screaming out in the open, and alt-pop’s proclivity for tight-knit genre diversity has fielded far sharper results. Just take GLOOM DIVISION, where the net has been cast even wider into funk, soul and R&B, but loses none of that focus.

Now, it should probably be said that iDKHOW isn’t a substitute for Panic! At The Disco, certainly not at their best. Despite the parallels drawn, they’re acts whose creative compass points to a different endgame, something that’s very apparent in GLOOM DIVISION’s more reserved scope. Anything all that big is sequestered as a tentative step at best—the flaunting pop-rock of DOWNSIDE and the scuzzy classic rock riffage of SPKOTHDVL. More often than not, Weekes’ attention is turned to the smaller, groove-heavier corners of music, especially if there’s an older standard set to feed through his own alt-pop prism. Thus, GLOOMTOWN BRATS peels out its fat, tight bass and disco sashay as an early bottom line for reinvention that’s not made subtle in the slightest.

It’s all among the norm for where Weekes’ finds himself, with nostalgia-pilled chicanery as the main attraction, and the dousing of grain and some illusory form of ‘homespun’ aesthetic to follow. There’s also a fair amount of lithe fun to be had among that, though, which renders a lot of criticism rather ineffectual. TikTok-ified versions of soul throwbacks in INFATUATION and WHAT LOVE? thankfully rest on their classic impulses rather than the additions made to them, which is ultimately the smartest move. Especially on the latter where Weekes’ gets to bust out his smouldering slow-jam chops as a vocalist, it offers something of a legitimacy that you don’t get from codified recreations. (Not to say that isn’t done to an extent, but the material isn’t choked by it, if that makes sense.)

On top of that, the indie-pop process that Weekes has remains almost constantly solid, regardless of how it’s reshaped. Maybe it’s to do with how the bass as Weekes’ weapon of choice has always had pride of place in the iDKHOW armoury, and to see it repurposed in a number of sensible ways can give off some real effectiveness. It’s always good to have it there establishing form, on FIND ME or KISS & TELL to hypnotically cycle through more minimal compositions, or simply to jut out and spasm through the closer iDIOTS OF Oz. Even among the glittery visages that a lot of these songs now wear, there’s still something endearing about a ramshackle, underconstructed skeleton protruding through regardless, and doing a lot to construct what these songs are. The quirkiness of appearance is surely part of the point; it’s why Weekes is as quick to plunge in as he is.

That said, GLOOM DIVISION is also the kind of album that can break apart in your hands with the more attention you give it. (Insert snarky quip about TikTok ephemerality here, certainly.) The predications of classic throwbacks meeting contemporary, bedroom-style ideals doesn’t leave room for much else, and when that sinks in, it takes the shape of an album that’s always enjoyable, if not always penetrative in its memorability. It does have moments, though, like the squonking discord rattling in the back corners of SATANIC PANIC, or an unintentionally hilarious attempt at bleeding-heart sincerity on A LETTER. It’s worth noting that, not only are those two songs placed right next to each other, but they’re right near the album’s end, as if to pigeonhole them away as oddities when the album could do with embracing its own weirdness.

Right after that is SUNNYSIDE, the pinnacle of the album’s blandness through chipper bedroom-indie, generally thanks to Weekes ignoring what GLOOM DIVISION is good at. And there’s a lot on show that he is good at, be that a breadth of knowledge of styles, or the acumen to use them, or just knowing how to crack through near enough anything with a good bassline. ‘The Gen Z Panic! At The Disco’ is a label that’ll likely be assigned to iDKHOW, especially with the conspicuous void in their wake, but maybe it’s not that helpful. After all, there’s just nothing here to field big, emotional swings, positive or negative, largely on the basis of music like this being nowhere close to equipped for it. But that’s not a bad thing; Weekes has a lane now, with a good amount of wiggle room inside it, and he seems to be making good use of that. The brief, sharp moments of fun that arise from it all prove worth it in the end.

For fans of: half•alive, Weathers, HUNNY

‘GLOOM DIVISION’ by I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME is released on 23rd February on Concord Music.

Words by Luke Nuttall