Original image by bepmp3, red klaxon alarm tinted by me
Emergency reunion installment of Skrillex Book Club is now in session.
ICYMI, we're taking a listening journey through the discography of the great Sonny Moore and sharing some of our thoughts along the way. Last week, we thought we were done.
After this week, it might actually be over for a little while.
SOMA (2026)
As this is posted, SOMA has been released at 11:00 PM (posting this late because I was playing Deadlock oops) in my time zone, US Central Daylight, or UTC-5:00. If you're in a time zone that is UTC-4:00 or less, sorry I'm late. If you're in a time zone that is UTC-6:00 or more, sorry I'm early. As of writing, I have not listened to the album so this intro post will be shorter than the previous ones made by hprara.
Now it's your turn!
What are your thoughts on this album? Do you love it/hate it? Have you even heard it? if not, go listen, the image is a link to it's RYM page
Speak your mind!
Postscript:
sorry if the emulating the previous posts bit feels off lol i thought it would be good for consistency but if were not rocking with it, any further emergency reunion posts i might make can be in a more simple format distancing themselves from the main sbc posts. just let me know.
okay going into this album i was expecting it to be of similar quality to or better than quest for fire but not as good as recess or fus. this is after only 2 listens and they were basically back to back but personally im willing to say i was pretty much right about this. i like it a little less than quest for fire but im definitely willing to call it better than jack u and dont get too close.
as for actual opinions on each track, i think soma meanders a little but is a very reasonable intro to the album. most of the new tracks have at least a little sauce. tranki is actually very interesting and fun i like it a lot, and scut 2 has some sauce. i also do like these weirder ambient leaning things skrillex has been putting out like cheeni. all the singles are solid and still hold up in the context of the album. most notably smoke is one of the better tracks on the album for sure and the other track with isoxo, anybody, having one of the best drops on the album and just generally being really good. especially after e o bonde and la noche 2 both being pretty boring but that just comes free with chris lake being on your track lol. at least la noche 2 has some of that previously mentioned ambient sauce but still not too great. as for the rest, pente rala is fun and noche without you is a bit up and down but its still enjoyable enough. the only track on here i like actively dislike is unfortunately diwali. its got what it needs to be good in terms of production but im just really not a fan of naishas vocals on here. im normally liking her vocals on tracks but this one just did not have that for me. also beam barely being on this track is criminal man he wouldve killed this.
i think the biggest thing i can say about this is that its like. reasonable. its good it does its job for the most part and is pretty enjoyable but its nothing too crazy in my opinion. its a little funny 2 of the best tracks both have isoxo and 2 of the worst tracks have chris lake but that just makes sense the more you think about it
Very kind of Skrillex to drop an album for us just so we can have one more week of Skrillex Book Club lmao.
FUS gave me pretty high expectations for the Skrillex album that would follow it. After two albums of material that ranged from quite good to quite not good and a bunch of inconsequential singles that followed them, FUS brought back the grit and punch that had been missing from more recent Skrillex material. After a couple of listens, I believe SOMA mostly continues that kind of sound, albeit much more inconsistently.
The opening title track starts the record on a high note. Natural sounding drums and flutes build up to one of the best drops on the album. Very reminiscent of the QFF era yet with a bit more drive. I was initially kinda lukewarm on "Thistle", one of the singles, but after a few listens, I can now say that I like it quite a bit actually. One of Sonny's more unique drum patterns. "Tranki" is a bassy trap song with some fun rap verses with occasional glitchiness on the vocals. Not a big fan of the "Ooh ahh ohs" but whatever. "Smoke", another single, is a massive highlight. Any Skrillex song with ISOxo is gonna be a banger, plus the sample from Harlem Shake is kinda funny. "Noche Without You" uses a really obvious sample of Robert Miles' "Children" and its very meh. "Scut 2" is crazy, and thats all I can really say about it. "Cheeni" is one of a couple tracks on here that takes cues from the Kora EP, being an interesting drumless passage. "Pente Rala" is fine. After that is an okay tech house track with Chris Lake. It genuinely just sounds like Skrillex took a pre-existing Chris Lake song, occassionally pressed a button labeled "dubstep growl", pressed it whenever he felt like it, and called it a day. Thankfully, after that mediocre Chris Lake song, is a mediocre Chris Lake song, this one being the sequel to a track Sonny and Chris made last year titled "La Noche". Not only is is just alright, its also really weird. It's supposed to be like an emotional callback style drumless track, but the callback is a Skrillex track that dropped last year and that nobody listened to. Imagine he did something like this for like, "In Da Getto" or something. It would be just as confusing and unresonant as this. is that a word? I don't care. Next track features ISOxo once again and its fire as hell. The penultimate track is "Duro" another single I didn't care much for upon release that ended up growing on me. Pretty fun track tbh. Finally, to close out the album, is "Diwali". This is not only the worst song on the album, but the worst closing track on any Skrillex project period (minus those that end with remixes). A nothingburger beat with a terrible verse from Naisha, who usually sounds really good, especially on "Cheeni" and one of the tracks on FUS, but this is really bad. Not to mention the song just, ends? Incredibly abruptly too, it just stops. Very strange decision to have this track be the closing track when Duro or even La Noche 2 would've have worked better.
Overall, this album is just as jampacked with bangers as it is loaded with duds. It feels like a collection of tracks more than a cohesive album. Despite this, the bad songs on here still blow any track from DGTC out of the water. It's a step down from FUS, then again, basically anything Sonny dropped after than was gonna pale in comparison to that masterpiece. After Jack U, it was very hard to be excited for whatever Skrillex was gonna do next, but even after this album, as much of a mixed bag as it is, still has me excited for whats to come. After nearly two decades of releases, Sonny is still just getting started.
This was honestly such a blast. I've been able to revisit songs from one of my favorite artists of my childhood as well as explore some of his stuff I never knew about until SBC. Getting to talk about Skrillex with others filled me with so much joy. It would be very fun to do something like this with other artists. Thank you everyone, and long live Skrillex Book Club.
