twikipedia – For the Rest of Your Life Review

Start the year with an unexpectedly tight extended play and try and ride the wave of interest before you burn yourself out. Such is the life of those who listened to and reviewed Still-Life, the twikipedia EP which dropped at the start of this year. Change was on the horizon. It could be heard in the electronic guitar additions of I Wanna Be The Guy. No good comes from treading water. Twikipedia, then, has challenged themselves and their listeners with what may become their defining album. For the Rest of Your Life has the bold and extensive feel of an artist reaching out with their gut feeling. Elements of power pop and the comfortable bedroom style twikipedia has carved out remain, but they are overhauled with a shock intensity. This is how peaks are made.  

For the Rest of Your Life certainly begins with the earnestness found in risk-taking. Room for One strips back the layers of protection twikipedia had previously used and instead finds hope in a gorgeous acoustic number. Experimental tones meet uplifting intentions. Guitar leads the flow of For the Rest of Your Life and the noisy pop charms of twikipedia are highlighted well. Comfortable music for dealing with self-inflicted writer’s block. Pieces like Garden cry out for a listener not to treat themselves with such disgust and disdain. There may be bugs in the wall and every other word is misspelled but the chances of finding peace with yourself are dashed when you hate every day. For the Rest of Your Life is something to cling to and has all the sporadic, glitch-pop charms of intercut instrumentals, stop-start styles and heavy distortion and muffling qualities. A charming experience, a lived-in development.  

Perhaps it is the ruminating nostalgia in this release which makes it such an enjoyable listen. Despite there being no real similarities between them, twikipedia conjures the same effective guitar work and implementation of out-there additions as Ratatat did on Classics. High-strung instrumentals take great form, a flourishing solo here or there to imprint the experience on the mind. It comes with a clawing desire to return to safety, to youth. But twenty-four going on twenty-five with a back and wrist in need of urgent repair is closer to the grave than it is to playing Halo 3 through to the early hours. Hold on to releases like twikipedia. They are one of the few modern releases to present a tie to the past despite not being there. 

Growth is crucial and in the immediate access we now have to artists, their thoughts and work, it is easier to chart. Trickier for the likes of twikipedia, but those who rise to the occasion, as they have done on Still-Life and For the Rest of Your Life, are worth keeping in with. A wonderful experience. Warmth from the likes of Learn Yourself calls for listeners to do just as the title suggests, figure themselves out. Figure Me Out is as genuine a follow-up as you could ask for. When we no longer see ourselves, it is up to those around us to untangle the web of ideas and achievements we cower behind. For the Rest of Your Life is a fantastic achievement, a bold move away from a sharp sound for twikipedia and into another genre where they flourish.