Review Summary: A worthy debut that gained well deserved recognition
After digesting Doom Hologram fully, I decided to dig a bit deeper into Alejandro Aranda debut album, Exit Form. Of course, we are talking about the guy who should have been the winner of 2019’s American Idol but wasn’t, and all for the better as he got signed to Hollywood Records, anyways, and has (quite apparently) full creative control of his projects now.
In retrospect it’s quite easy to see why this isn’t the masterful work of art that Doom Hologram is, but even with all of its flaws and having now something else to compare it to, it is still a remarkable achievement that stands firm on its own. Right off the bat, “Black Cross” starts the album abruptly with an industrial rock sound that solidifies Alejandro’s inspiration by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. This industrial sound carries on for the first half of the album with symphonic elements spread throughout; a couple of examples are the ending part of “Black Cross” or the piano driven “Beneath the Skin”, reminiscent of Radiohead and Muse. There’s a very tangible talent of blending all of these influences seamlessly and give it its own proper identity. Part of it also has to do with vocal virtuoso Alejandro, who ranges from deep crooning, particularly on the industrial influenced “Dance the Night Away” and pop ballad “Millennial Love”, to falsettos like on “Beneath the Skin” and the acoustic “Out Loud”.
While the first half has “Vampire Shade”, a very drum heavy pop rock song, the album has a very consistent sound until “Millennial Love” where the album shift gears to a more standard territory. This aspect, very much fixed in Doom Hologram (which only gets weirder and more complex as it goes on), hurts its replay value and flow. Once the album lands on more standard pop territory with “Cholo Love”, “10 Years” and “Tonight” it just feels completely out place, tonally and stylistically, specially when you consider much darker cuts such as "Diamonds" and "True Religion".
It is this lack of direction towards the latter half what hurts the album the most; not to mention that Cholo Love (Superscary Mix) is a much superior genre blending version of the song compared to the one that was included on the album. And yet with such an odd song selection and flow it is still a worthy debut that gained well deserved recognition.
