Boy Destroy – Pink Cloud Review

Wake yourself up with a piece of a little left-field music, different to the usual morning showcases. No more chomping down well-buttered toast and necking coffee while listening to deep-cut Arctic Monkeys songs. It just will not do. Variation and a change of pace are in store for those who live alone. There are better options than Boy Destroy, whose guise of deep reds and off-kilter momentum is unravelled as the usual tones rather quickly. Pink Cloud is, as it will soon be found, not the expression of unique ideas it was presented as. No such luck for those listening in for that much deeper, though. Pink Cloud is your usual run of electric-adjacent works with Boy Destroy offering nothing truly particular or wild. Neat little tunes which bring about the luck and dismay of this or that feeling. Broad strokes from an artist who can afford specifics. 

Selfish Lies (Laudanum) is a sum of troubles and triumphs. A slick desire to rhyme everything brings out nonsensical yet heartfelt lyrics for Boy Destroy to leave. These are not words to decipher but drops and similar-sounding words which work for the sake of pace and flow above anything else. Peculiar a change this may be, it is a constant problem throughout this EP. At least the electric guitar which strikes through, briefly but necessarily, is a wonderful addition. Sitting with your thoughts is a rejected concept for second track Left Handed. Perhaps a bit more thought into the lyrical assertions would have been a possibility. One trip out with them is a pain, but seven? Self-aggrandising and soppy lyrics which feel sorry for the self without much reason.  

A concept and project with little aim beyond highlighting what bothers Boy Destroy, Pink Cloud has a dance-pop style to it which does not gel well. His instrumentals and guitar work are emo-oriented, as NO SLEEP accepts, but the tired percussion and predictable flow of a track like this is systematic of Pink Cloud as a seven-track project. Annoyingly plain lyrics flow through. He is tired for he cannot sleep. Nice one. Pink Cloud is stuffed full of the obvious, the inherently, binary opposite to a point in the title made over and over. Self Immolation and Weak are the real troublemakers here, and Boy Destroy has some nerve comparing himself to Nirvana when he sounds closer to the everyday standards of modern pop punk. A deflated genre claims another. 

You can wake yourself up with whatever music you like, just not Pink Cloud. Its tired and formulaic approach to pairing instrumental variety – most of which is just The Hunna lite – with a painfully predictable back and forth to each track, is hard to get through. No prizes for whoever can guess what Two Faces is about. With an aesthetic similar to YUNGBLUD but a depth and lyrical perception equivalent to The Wiggles, Boy Destroy has no intention of masquerading his meaning or providing some hard-to-understand line of thought. Their complete and unwavering dependency on clear, present and simple messages is their biggest downfall. Pink Cloud could have been filled with the mystery and sculpted wonder so clearly presented on the EP cover – but it could not be further from the achievements of old art. This is blank and new and so very tired of itself.