Thirty-year-old English producer Joe Thornalley (son of ex-Cure bassist Phil) is best known for working with Frank Ocean, back when the singer made albums. Thornalley’s second Vegyn outing develops the chilly, dance-adjacent sound he debuted on Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds. This time, we get more singers and better-structured songs. Nothing as pretty as 2019’s Debold, but it feels like his most accessible project so far – far more engaging than Headache, his recent AI-performed side hustle.
The preponderance of sharp drum breaks on The Road to Hell… is reminiscent of 90s trip-hop – the brighter, trancey west-coast US productions, rather than smoky Brooklyn-via-Bristol beats. It gives his work a steely relentlessness that plays nicely against a glossy melody, especially on Léa Sen’s lovely Turn Me Inside and John Glacier’s murmuring, insistent A Dream Goes On Forever. Ambitious single Halo Flip is a good bellwether for the album. If you enjoy its combination of fractured storytelling and long instrumental passages, you’ll appreciate the consistent quality of the simpler songs around it.
