In Review: Eyedress - Let's Skip To The Wedding

On his first LP since moving to the States, Eyedress dazzles with a slick, lo-fi combination of bass-driven songs and a genre-hopping approach to songwriting.

Posted: 5 August 2020 Words: Alex Orr

Filipino singer/songwriter/rapper/producer Idris Vicuña – better known as Eyedress – is back with his third full-length release Let’s Skip to the Wedding. Boasting a whopping 19 tracks, this feels like the artist’s magnum opus, full of creative ideas that are sometimes held back by the shorter song form he employs.

None of the tracks scratch the 3:30 mark in terms of length, which works both for and against the album. No songs are in danger of overstaying their welcome, but some feel like they have left sonic territory unexplored. Songs like ‘I Don’t Want to Be Your Friend’ and ‘Never Want to be Apart’ are just starting to build something before they prematurely end, whilst others like the title track opener and ‘Romantic Lover’ are perfectly matched to their short run times.

Instrumentally, it becomes immediately apparent that the first instrument Eyedress picked up was the bass guitar - almost all the songs revolve around a reverb-laden bassline that becomes a defining aspect of Let’s Skip to the Wedding. There are more standout moments for this instrument than all the others combined, which is refreshing to see in the indie/dream-pop arena – in particular ‘Last Time I’m Falling in Love’, single ‘Can I See You Tonight’ and ‘Never Want to be Apart’ all come to mind as great rhythmic achievements, but upon repeated listens you’ll likely find yourself gravitating towards different bass moments every time.

This isn’t to say the rest of the gamut are subpar – melody has its time to shine too, with ‘Pop the Question’ featuring a fun, psych-infused guitar riff and ‘X-Girl’ providing the synth-y goodness you usually find overdone in this genre. Album highlight ‘My Girl the Finest’ brings the intricate licks, alongside a soaring bassline for what is the best instrumental performance on the record. Vocally, Eyedress tends to stick to the zone he’s most comfortable in, with the low register, washed out vocal performance and production he’s best known for. It works with the music, and there are moments of experimentation such as ‘Trauma’ venturing to the high end of his range, whilst ‘Mystical Creatures Best Friend’ and ‘Pick up the Phone’ mess around with robotic vocal effects. It’s a little hit-and-miss, but provides some much-needed variation.

Over the course of Let’s Skip to the Wedding's duration, you’ll hear just about everything Eyedress can offer. The album makes an admirable effort in presenting as a cohesive piece as opposed to a collection of parts, but the disjointed feeling brought on by the machine gun-pace at which it rattles through leads to repeated listens being necessary to truly appreciate it’s quality.