This album was released on May 12th this year. The last two calm. albums have been some of my favorite releases of their respective years, so I was pretty excited when I saw that this album was coming out. The concept about lucid dreaming seems pretty interesting too. According to the Bandcamp page for this album, the album is meant to be listened to as one long song. Most of the tracks are under two minutes, and the album itself is under half an hour long. I don’t really have any expectations. If I had to guess I’d say that I’m probably gonna dig this album, but I don’t know for sure. This album seems more experimental than their previous efforts, so I may not enjoy it quite as much. I’m excited to give it a listen though.
The album begins with the title track, All the Dreams I Ever Had, which is a highlight for me. I really love the percussion here; the melodic beat sounds phenomenal. Time‘s poetic lyricism ties the track together perfectly too.
All the dreams I ever had
When the devil made me, he was in his bag
Falling from the sky, I jump up from my mattress
Choreograph my death, every night is practice
One thing I really appreciate about this album is that they really stuck to the concept about dreaming. There are no songs that sound like they don’t fit in with the theme of the record.
All the dreams I ever had
I'm running in slow mo as the knives stab
Mud walking, sludge walking, build it as we go
I'm sculpting my pain into art, watch me grow
Because of the trippy, inexplicable nature of dreams, Time is able to get really creative and out there with his lyricism, and it’s very fun to listen to. The peculiar imagery had me on the edge of my seat, ready to hear each and every line. I think the song’s dope as hell. I like the following track, Spilled Into a Chasm, even more. The kind of heavy, tense, melodic production sounds fantastic, and Time’s lyricism is top notch here.
Paranoid from the Adam Curtis documentaries
Red eyes in the alley, don’t let a Shinigami mention me
I teleport with the kava and valerian root
Melatonin nebula, my dream guide says there’s no truth
Still searching for it though in love, rhymes and 80 proof
I think I saw its shadow but illusions are aloof
I detox with burdock and dandelion tea
I pushed the demons out my circle that were lying to me
One thing about a chasm is you cant get out alone
You need the help of your friends with a rope and some poems
Picture me rolling then picture me levitating
I came back to Denver holding the horns of Satan
The song’s only about a minute and a half long, so there’s just time for one verse. The track is just a really great performance from Time over a superb instrumental. I really fuck with it. I think it’s dope as hell. It’s followed by another highlight entitled Of Knowing Mistaken. I really love the bars on the intro from Time. The way he raps with no drums here is really cool.
We all have a 6th sense a second attention
The hairs go up on the back of your neck when you sense other dimensions
Break down the boundaries, you’ll see you’re surrounded by the boundless
The ego tries to separate, but in you I found us
The additional vocals from AwareNess sound really cool. The dark, heavy, piano-driven instrumental is really nice too. Apart from the drumless intro, the song consists of a full verse from Time that’s really great.
Floating I am groundless, finally I am doubtless
Sensory deprivation, the symphony of the soundless
I listen to storytellers of genetic memories
Intergenerational knowledge, trauma, and treacheries
Here I can teleport, here I can time travel
A 5 minute nap is a 2 week dream, time unravels
I punch a president in the face and I jump off a cliff
I can fly, stars I press against, no consequence
I think these bars exemplify the aforementioned creativity that’s possible due to the lucid dream concept of the album. This track honestly grew on me a lot. I think it’s excellent. Track 4 is called For Ignorance & Despair, and it’s pretty dope. The lyrical content about sleep paralysis is cool.
I’m sorry for rambling, did you leave? Are you there?
With each breath I feel like I’m gambling, scrambling for air
My anxiety competes with chemicals and my sobriety
I let people walk all over me then blame it on society
I’m sorry, you’re not my diary, but you listen so quietly
Rap is my psychiatry, my thoughts are finally quieting
If you’re still really there I have two questions for you
Why can’t I open my eyes, I mean why can’t I move?
I like the jazzy boom bap production a lot too. This song isn’t really structured that differently from the preceding couple of songs. It’s just one verse over a nice beat. The main appeal of this track for me is the lyricism. Time’s writing had me hooked as always. This one didn’t blow me away like the first few songs did, but I still really enjoyed it. The following track is called Humbly Executed, and it’s the first song on the album to exceed 2 minutes in length. It still follows the same structure as the preceding material, but Time’s passionate vocal delivery really makes this song stand out. I feel like his flow and vocal performance sound particularly fiery here. The content about dreams within dreams was very interesting as well.
From a dream in a dream in a dream I woke up again
I’m tapping death’s chin with both my knuckles again
Dreams are my dialect, quitting; haven’t tried it yet
Eating demons everyday, I haven’t had a diet yet
Vomit the nonsense, dream industrial complex
Nightmares and monsters, I invented the concept
Sorcerers and black smoke, tobacco and black oak
Porcelain and glass rope, holding up black holes
The production feels relatively Electronic and Dance-inspired. This isn’t the kind of instrumental that I would listen to casually on its own, but the performance from Time really sounds great over it. I think this shit is dope. Track 6 is a highlight called (Dream Style Technique). This song grew on me heavily after repeat listens. The melodic, dreamy production is amazing. This song might have my favorite beat on the whole album. I absolutely love Time’s poetic lyricism here too.
Talking to a DMT angel She said the world’s made of pixels and sacred angles She said the world’s a chrysalis and growing wings is painful She said stay out the weeds, poison ivy can strangle So I write with a machete on this page like Betty 'Til my problems become confetti, I killed a forest already My heart is made of glass, break it, stab it like Debbie I hit Atlas in his Achilles and left the world unsteady
One thing I appreciate about Time is that he never really has any filler bars or throwaway lines. It genuinely feels like everything he says contributes to the overall quality of each song. Again, this song really grew on me. The production and lyricism are just really exceptional. The following track is called On An Alter of Forgiveness, and I don’t really love this track quite as much as most of the other songs on the album, although I still do enjoy it overall. In fact, this track actually grew on me a lot. I love it way more now than I initially did. The reason it’s not one of my favorite tracks is just that I don’t love the production that much. The background vocals really grew on me a lot though. I think the melody is really nice. However, Time’s poetic lyricism is what really sells this track for me. He killed this shit.
Take a hammer to vanity, you’ll see that it’s fragile
I use grammar and profanity to shake and dismantle
The illusion of fallacies like the snake and the apple
If you take a sober look then the fantasies unravel
Like can you really explain the anatomy of a shadow?
My only strategy has to be salvation from the battle
Every time that you judge you make a new pair of shackles
So let go of that grudge 'cause that energy travels
I’m really glad this song grew on me. I think it’s dope now. Track 8 is a major highlight entitled By a Sword Named Memory. This is another one that grew on me a little bit. I loved it the first time I heard it, but now I think it’s one of the best songs of the year. It’s the first track on the project to reach three minutes in length, and feels more fleshed out than some of the other songs as a result. Simply put, the production is just really spectacular, and Time killed it. His use of anaphora during the second half of the verse is cool.
Give me a fox’s yell, the smell of Denver in the rain
Give me a splinter from a coffin that still remembers the pain
Give me arcade nostalgia and the warmth of a dryer vent
Give me willow bark powder and fingerprints from Poseidon’s trident
Give me a comma to pause mortality’s sentence
Give me the vowels from chance, and put them in repentance
Give me 350 stories from a bard
Give me a ripple from a lost salmon in a pond
Give me a conversation you had with a dream emissary
Give me tombstone dust and soil from 7 cemeteries
Give me a carved hobo code and a boxcar sigil
Give me 4 wicks from melted candles from a vigil
This track technically isn’t structured any differently from the rest of the songs, but the production is more dynamic, so it feels like there are more layers here. The song’s amazing. The following track is another highlight called Mistaken for Truth. Once again, the melodic production is stunning, and Time’s poetic lyricism had me hooked.
Load your gun with this song and blast it at the lies I dug up truth’s grave and only saw a casket of whys There’s no satan just yourself wearing a mask of flies I asked god why is life hell and saw a laugh in her eyes We’re breakdancing on the ocean floor doing windmills She’s every word never heard that the wind steals With each flare we create portals and whirlpools Thoughts like lava we make new land as the earth cools
I actually think that this is one of the most interesting songs on the whole album lyrically. Again, this track follows the same structure as every other song, but it’s too well done for me to nitpick. The song’s about 3 and a half minutes long, so it feels richer and more fleshed out than a lot of the other tracks. I think it’s dope as hell. The penultimate track is called With Blood Like Doubt, and it’s definitely my least favorite song on the album. I still like it to some extent, but it’s just not as enjoyable as the others for me. What really makes this song relatively weak to me is the way it begins. The first 8 bars are performed with a melodic delivery, and they’re covered in autotune. It just sounds kinda ugly to me honestly. The melody itself isn’t particularly great. I think it would’ve sounded a lot better without the autotune probably. Thankfully the rest of the verse is performed without any vocal effects. I think it’s a good performance overall. I’m just not crazy about the way it starts. The song is just under a minute and a half long, so it’s a pretty brief track. I think that works to its benefit though. I can definitely see how this one could’ve overstayed its welcome if it was any longer. Despite my reservations, I still enjoy this song quite a bit. I think it’s good. The closing track is called Trust Is Silent But Speaks Loud. This is easily the longest song on the album. It’s almost five and a half minutes, and Time is rapping the entire time. I really love the cinematic production here. The way it kinda switches up for the final two minutes of the song really pushes this track to the next level for me. Time’s storytelling here is really well done too.
I met a lost soul, she asked if I could walk her home
Only problem was she lived in the crossroads
They’re selling souls on the corner, you know the devil bought those
I see crop circles of corn form across the rows
Spelling out equations of math unknown
I was looking for peace and love, but lost both
I saw "wake up" written in ice, the frost wrote
Then I was back in Prophet’s Hall, my thoughts froze
This really feels like the climax of the album. There’s a lot going on here lyrically. The story is very wild. I really fuck with it. I think this was an exciting way to end the album, and I can see this being a lot of people’s favorite track. It’s a wonderful song.
This album is dope as hell. There’s not a single track here that I don’t like. I don’t have any consistent gripes. I mean, maybe some more diversity when it comes to the way the songs are structured could’ve made it an even more fun listen. That’s me searching for problems though. I’d be lying if I said I really thought there was anything wrong with this album. AwareNess’ melodic, polished production sounds as great as ever, and Time knocked the theme outta the park in my opinion. As I said in the body of this review, the whole dream concept allows for Time to get really creative with his lyricism. As a result, this is one of the most fun albums I’ve heard all year. The brevity of each track is an interesting quality worth noting as well. Listeners aren’t really given a chance to get tired of any of the sounds here since nothing overstays its welcome. The album as a whole is under half an hour long, and I really appreciate how they were able to keep everything so concise. All the songs segue into each other really well. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this album as much as calm.’s preceding release, but, depending on my mood, I might like this one even more. This is one of the best albums of the year to me. Don’t sleep on it. I think it’s really great.
Favorite Song: By a Sword Named Memory
Least Favorite Song: With Blood Like Doubt
86



What do you think?