Queen Cement, California Dream Girl, and Our Father who art in Heaven
After nearly a decade of relentless artistic vision and ambition we're left with 'Riviera', the most complete version of an album by Noah Dillon and Chandler Lucy. Far from grace, but forever in its favor, The Hellp put together a sonic masterpiece that is far from rivaled by any other album to release this year.
While many fans of The Hellp were hoping for hard hitting, experimental, or anthem-style hits, Noah Dillon and Chandler Lucy go the opposite direction and instead produce an album reminiscent of the true "indie sleaze" era of LCD Soundsystem and MGMT. This isn't 'Caustic', this isn't 'Tu Tu Neurotic', this is a whole unique and standalone project entirely separate from any expectations one should have from an album by The Hellp. Yet, then again, if you expect anything other than raw authenticity from this band you are letting yourself down.
I would include standout songs from this album, but it would be a disservice to say that there isn't a single one on here that doesn't shine. I truly think that for near-perfect-to-perfect albums they must be listened to from cover to cover like a book or movie, and I think 'Riviera' is no exception to that. I'm sure that by reading this you already know that the Hellp is an electronic band, and to that extent this is their least electronic-focused album yet. If anything, this is also their least experimental album too, but we've already got rough and abrasive tracks from them before so to hear a new direction is nice. I had high hopes for this album, and to be honest it completely surpassed them in a way I never would've imagined. So if you are on the fence or currently listening to this album, just sit back, close your eyes, and take it all in.