This was a highly anticipated album for me. Feeling Not Found is the first LP we've seen from Origami Angel since 2021's Gami Gang. While I would never say that Origami Angel isn't prolific (they have delivered at least three singles a year since 2022), I felt like it was past time for this group to showcase their growth as artists in a new full length album.
Feeling Not Found is more of the good stuff we expect from Origami Angel. Singer and songwriter Ryland Heagy is still hitting us with the hyper energetic melodies that the band is known for, and drummer Pat Doherty continues to lay down the heavy, hard rock/grunge drum tracks that provides the base for the duo.
Lyrically, Origami Angel has always leaned toward nostalgia, the prime example being their 2019 EP Gen 3, which was entirely about the Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald games for the Nintendo gameboy. Feeling Not found takes nostalgia and moves a step further. This is an album not saying "remember how much fun it was to be a kid", but instead asks how adults are supposed to maintain healthy relationships while shackled to the chains of social media that replaced the promises which technology once offered. Feeling Not Found Doesn't lament the loss of the gameboy, but ponders how to do right by one's self in the wake of its passage.
Take one of my favorite lyrics from Underneath My Skin: "Just 'cause you've got mutual friends. Opinions and pictures of them, but my blood is red just like yours" Seeming maybe an on-the-nose social media joke, this line underscores the main theme of the album, which is about how insane it is to develop and maintain meaningful relationships in the modern media environment. Feeling Not Found shakes its fist at the lost potential of the internet of our youth. Gone are the days of finding easy answer on Google. Uber is more expensive than a cab, and AI is burning our forests and depleting our aquifers as I type, and yet we are asked to surrender more and more of ourselves to be converted into data and sold each day.
Heagy and Doherty write about the blending of the digital and real perception of themselves saying that they are "looking at the night sky waiting to find another glitch inside this matrix", and comment on the nature of viewing and interacting with a person solely through a digital medium with the observation that "sorry is easy to say, harder to mean, and even harder to prove. You're telling me, but I should be telling you that someday, you'll suddenly see that that couldn't be more far away from the truth." Feeling Not Found is a contemporary rock album for a contemporary audience, and takes an unafraid stance on the modern media machine. Ironically, despite Origami Angel's clear distrust of modern media, in this case, it has inspired a masterpiece.
Will you love Feeling Not Found? If you like high energy rock music with unique melodies and vocal performances, this record is for you. If you, like most people, are struggling with how you view yourself and your relationships in the digital age, Feeling Not Found will resonate all the more. if you are upset that you can't even google a recipe anymore, this album is for you. If you have ever lost sleep over an online interaction, this album is for you.
Origami Angel is on tour at the time of this article's publishing. This author, The Tempo, and Origami Angel would like nothing more than for you to log off for an evening and see them perform live. The Tempo gives Feeling Not Found a 5/5.
Comentarios