An artist must provoke and much is done to demonstrate this in title alone by Vegyn. There is depth within The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions and therein lies a title worth considering anyway. It attempts a grander scope – a wider worry we should all have on the expectations which come with an always positive attitude. An outlook like this can still land you in one of those seven circles so frequently noted in this journeyman album, an adventure through life and death in its own right. You may be a good person, but there is still something missing, as opener A Dream Goes On Forever warns. Within this warning is the expectation or the fear. Either we feel this missing piece will reveal itself to us or we remain hellbent on trying to figure out what it is. The end is the same and, in this fear, we can find some sense of solace, as Vegyn demonstrates.
Vegyn has, for better or worse, used controversial tools behind the scenes to get to this point. Provocation for the sake of it gets us nowhere if there is no point behind it. Artificial intelligence as a creative asset is a murky water to wade through at best, but Vegyn has evolved past this, it would appear. No robot can speak from the heart, and if we are to fall for it again then we are to be grifted by an instrumentally sound and interesting producer. There is a human courage inherent to opening track A Dream Goes On Forever that would lose so much if it were artificial. Instead, the work goes on as a testament to what happens before our arrival and after our departure. It is all the same but The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions focuses on the feeling of being bogged down in a spiralling thought pattern. Nothing is special. Nothing is sacred. That may be, but it is perspective which matters, something Another 9 Days gets at, but does not understand.
At its core are moments of instrumental interest and a pairing with guest vocalists certainly helps keep the early moments fresh. Interpretation is the point of this Vegyn piece. Not what we perceive as correct or incorrect but what we get from it. No wrong answers, according to the creator behind it, but few right ones either. It is this fluidity which benefits The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions most of all. And yet those good intentions are still on the road to flimsier materials paired with interesting, if light, instrumental work. It is a mixed bag which truly depends on the mood of the moment. Pieces like Halo Flip feel like a dip into Above and Beyond territory. They neither elevate nor negate the project or the passion within but they do try and move Vegyn away from the feel and appeal of an album.
Music to extract and tinker with in your own time, away from a fully built album. Odd, considering there is a solid flow to all of this and it is something The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions relies on. But then there is a sense of Vegyn doing too much, of trying to live up to some lofty expectations with how his story throughout should unravel. Ultimately it is the mixture, the rich production style and the immediate shocks to the system which come through in some remarkably subtle ways, which makes all the difference. A wide range of sounds, from the touching bits of The Path Less Travelled which marks the best of the album to the depths heard on Makeshift Tourniquet. Whatever the case there is enough within, when it gets a little tough or same-y, to remind of why you fell for the sounds Vegyn makes in the first place.
Dramatic increases in quality come about after those early tracks – and that is not a knock at the exceptional collaboration with John Glacier and Léa Sen. They provide some of the best moments but it is from listener to listener on where the brightest sparks of this album are heard. For some, it will be the instrumental-only sections and for others, there will be great joy in the advancements made by Vegyn to make this feel a part of the real world and yet something fictional, a moment which transcends the very notions of being something of this Earth. It is a bold move and often risks more than it can ever hope to recoup in reward. But such is the fine line between creatives, and Vegyn presents plenty of interesting moments through The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions.
