Simp Music: 'More Sad Hits' by Damon & Naomi

Since Drake came out and got popular for making basically nothing but sad music. A lot of artists tried to duplicate what he did and build a career based around sad songs. They were plenty of artists who have done this before, but not to the extent which Drake has. I've heard arguments that The Smiths and even solo Morrissey have made some of the saddest songs in history. While that is very true and 'Unlovable' happens to be in the top 6 simp songs I've ever heard. Damon & Naomi are possible the saddest people to exist ever. Their whole catalog is just full of sad melodies with depressing lyrics. But specifically, 'More Sad Hits' is simply on it's own plane of sadness.

The album was released in 1997 making it considerably more modern than The Smiths, but absolutely acient compared to the simp music made by Drake and other members of the light skinned pigment today. The album itself is actually very pretty in a melancholy type of way. Everything on the album is really light on the ears and somewhat simple in nature so you can focus on being sad instead of complicated instumentaion. The great thing about this album is that the vocals are mixed so that they kind of blend in with the music. Giving it a very dreamy and engulfing feel. While they classify themselves as a dream pop band, I feel that this is a very wrong categorization. The mixing of their songs do delve into the waters of dream pop, however, this album lacks the synths, powerful vocals, and overly loud drums of dream pop bands. But weirdly the guitars are mixed in a way where they sound extremely spacey and airy. So they end up sounding somewhat like a pseudo synth. But the base sound of the guitar is still there, because it's impossible to make a truly sad song without an acoustic guitar. This album was made in the time where the shoe-gaze genre were riddled with bands. Damon & Naomi were a breath of fresh air to the scene. Even though his album isn't technically shoe-gaze per say, you can definitely hear the influence. The crown jewel of this album is 'Sir Thomas & Sir Robert.' This is easily the saddest song on the album. The song is very minimalist, the only instrument used in this song is a guitar. The lyrics are very gothic and the mixing on the vocals are very airy, which  makes it difficult to focus on the lyrics and easier to just focus on the depressing melody and strumming. Damon Krukowski's droning, deep, monotonous, sad voice is accompanied by Naomi Yang's high pitched,beautifully, less emotionally charged voice. All centered around a simple chord progression. Singing would be the wrong word to use on this song, the lyrics were recited with much more of a miserable drag than an actual voice. But somehow the passion is still present. Pretty much the whole album is great, but that's the standout song. All in all this album is great when you got the last Capri sun in the box and it doesn't have a straw attatched to it, or basically any other sad moment in your life. - L$G

Normal Rating: 7.6/10 

Sad rating: 10/10