In the words of an iconic 2010 Skrillex track, yes, on my god.
On Tuesday (April 1), the producer released his fourth studio album, the astoundingly titled F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3.
Consider this name a tone-setter for the tongue-in-cheek, often abrasive, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, self-deprecating, self-aware, loving and ultimately quite moving project. Made up of 34 tracks, some as short as 29 seconds, the project is, as the opening track “SKRILLEX IS DEAD” requests, best listened to from start to finish, as it plays as a 46-minute continuous mix that compounds upon itself as it barrels along to a soaring finish.
If the project sounds like Skrillex having fun with his friends, that’s because he’s got more than 25 collaborators on the project, with this list including Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs, Boys Noize (the other half of Skrillex’s longtime Dog Blood project), previous collaborator Bibi Bourelly, bass masters Wuki and G Jones and many, many others (with even more pals, including Fred again.. and ISOxo, also listed in the production credits).
So too do all the friends on this album not only indicate just how revered this guy is, but how he’s an excellent curator with an ear for greatness both established and up and coming, with everyone seeming to use their turn on the project to flex as hard as humanly possible in terms of singing, production, sound design, complexity and general heaviness.
Skrillex himself has said little about the project, beyond that it would be his last for Atlantic Records, thanking “all my friends who took part in creating this moment” and reiterating it’s meant to be listened to from start to finish.
So, with a lot left open for interpretation, one can see the album as bridging two sides of the artist born Sonny Moore’s long trajectory, with many moments evoking the hardest, most absurdly heavy moments that defined his earliest output as Skrillex, an era when his work came to define American style dubstep and evolve ideas of what music itself might be.
Meanwhile, the several in which he himself sings both nod to his early days as the vocalist for emo band From First to Last while — in finally using his own voice on his electronic productions — indicate evolution, with Skrillex hereby putting himself out there in an arguably more vulnerable way than on much of his previous output. (And the moments in which he sings are some of the album’s best.)
The album is MC’d by a unidentified booming radio voice, who often drops in jokes that might in passing seem like just goofing around, but, in their frequent allusions to Skrillex being “dead,” Skrillex being “locked in a basement,” being about Atlantic Records, etc. seem to also perhaps indicate the artist’s feelings about this being his final project for his longtime label. (The project, like all of his work, is a jouint release from Atlantic and Skrillex’s own OWSLA label, with no announcement yet about what the future of OWSLA is now that his contract with Atlantic is complete.)
While there were nine years between Skrillex’s first and second albums, F*CK U SKRILLEX is the relatively lightning-speed follow-up to 2023’s Quest for Fire and Don’t Get Too Close. In comparison, these albums feel absolutely contained and also traditional, containing 15 and 12 songs, respectively. To put 34 tracks on an album some might call batsh– (and we mean that as a compliment) suggests a punching through of boundaries, with the project altogether giving a feel of evolution and untethered creativity.
While it’s perhaps a fool’s errand to rank tracks on an album that’s meant to be listened to from start to finish, there are certainly standout moments. These are the album’s 34 tracks, ranked.
