A Very Smurt Retrospective Pt. 4: Succumbing to Commercialism

 A Very Smurt Retrospective Pt. 4: Succumbing to Commercialism

10/17/20

Sometimes, an artist or other musical act won't find their definitive style right away. In the case of Green Day, their first album "39 / Smooth" was arguably sort of a mess, and never really followed the band's later 90s style. Afterwards, they fit into that style pretty nicely with "Kerplunk", and explored it much deeper in its successor, one of their best albums, "Dookie". With Very Smurt, though, it took him an EP, more singles, and a debut album to fit into the style of "Jeanyus". Of course, this album was diverse stylistically at a lot of points, but all of the main tracks fit within one certain type of style. This threw some fans off about the album, but this album was still undoubtably good in its own ways; whether these ways be different from Meme God or not. Following "Jeanyus", however, we recieved what was probably Very Smurt's most stylistically strict album yet: "Stanferd Dropout". Relating things back to Green Day, "Stanferd Dropout" is in a way Very Smurt's "Dookie". It was the third album in his discography, one of the most loved and praised to date, and a lot more stylistically bound than their last.

The marketing for this album was pretty par for the course, but the track list is worth discussing further due to the "commercialism" point. The album starts off like any from the current era; with a classic Garageband loop "Welcome To..." intro. Next, we have five more Smurt bangers, a track taken down and slightly censored from the past album, and an acoustic interlude. After this, we find three more bangers, another acoustic song, and the classic outro following the "Peace Out _innas" formula. There's nothing too special or interesting about the track list at all, which is exactly what makes it so special and interesting. No Smurt album to date has had such a stylistically bound track list following a very distinct and used formula with so many of a certain type of song. Not only did every song follow the same repeated lyrical content as the last two albums, but it also followed practically the same beat structure for every "banger" track. Looking only on the negative side, this album was far too strict with itself, and this made the album not only repetitive, but far worse than at least "Jeanyus".

Despite this one key element, however, "Stanferd Dropout" is a modern Very Smurt masterpiece. Nearly every banger in this album, (or at least the ones in the first half), feel like timeless classics in the Very Smurt discography. This album brings with it iconic lines ranging from "I'm eating pizza rolls right at the voting polls" to "look a hater in the eye, and I just say bye". His first-era style here reached near perfection in a variety of tracks, and felt exactly where he was trying to go in terms of beat direction in every song. The features helped keep the album interesting and provided a wider array of breaks from Smurt's voice throughout the album, which became pretty refreshing sometimes. Basically, "Stanferd Dropout" is by no means a bad album. Perhaps some of the tracks in the latter half get pretty dull at points, (i.e. "I Don't Care"), but overall, the album remained consistent. Whether this sheer abundance of consistency was for better or for worse, it was still clear, and provided a very nice grounding many parts of "Jeanyus" or "Meme God" lacked.

While the tracks were good, and the style was nearly perfected, it's still important to remember that this album wasn't as great as some people say. The main reasons for all of these tracks being the way they are is due to Very Smurt wanting to make more money and get more fame. He wanted to please the fans instead of creating something amazing for his own personal reasons. It's a sad thing to see artists do this, and even if this album was still really good, Very Smurt did still end up caving in with these commercial and non-innovative practices. The commercialism reflects especially when you see and realize what fans truly wanted out of this new Very Smurt album before its final release. People wanted more Smurt bangers, and Smurt truly delivered. This worked for so many fans, but for true fans who wanted to see Smurt branch off from this distinct and sometimes repetitive style, it was kind of sad. Smurt himself has discussed these same views that he has over various interviews after "WOOb", seeing as he didn't want to downplay the album while hype was still high. 

To this day, nearly a year-and-a-half later, fans have fairly conflicted feelings on this project. Though, nearly every diehard fan can agree that it could compare perfectly to Green Day's "Dookie". This album is fine for a one-or-two-song listen, but when listening to the entire thirty-six minutes, it can get pretty old. All in all, this album had its ups and downs: like every Very Smurt album before it and every one yet to come. One thing is for sure, though; it was a very interesting marketing and musical experiment. Nonetheless, I think we are all very thankful that it led to what was probably the greatest breakthrough in Smurt's career: "WOOb".