Porter Robinson’s third studio album “SMILE! :D,” released on July 26 – with its maximalist aesthetic, brisk pacing and sonically powerful production- is a genre-bending electronic dance record that centers themes of facade and Porter’s own personal dilemmas as a musical artist.
The evolution of Porter Robinson’s style can be seen from his early days producing electronic music as a teenager, to his 2011 EP “Spitfire” and his subsequent studio albums that widely differ from each other. The nostalgic, ethereal escapism of 2014’s “Worlds” and the more mature, grounded atmosphere in 2021’s “Nurture,” has earned him both a dedicated fanbase as well as critics who wish for Porter to return to his older style. Through it all, Porter keeps reinventing his craft and being unabashedly himself in the process. His 2024 album “SMILE :D” marks yet another jump in his signature electronic style, arguably his biggest one yet.
Consistent throughout the album is Robinson’s distinctive electro-pop style married with pop punk, punk rock and hyperpop baked in a Y2K aesthetic. This specific visual background is more reminiscent of the early days of social media such as YouTube and Pinterest, often mocked in retrospect for being associated with memories of naive adolescence. Robinson uses this dated aesthetic as a backdrop, bringing out his voice on many of the album’s tracks to touch on themes of denial, impersonation and fandoms that revolve around musicians in today’s internet culture.
Leading off the album with “Knock Yourself Out XD,” Robinson wears the over-the-top persona of a musician allowing fame to reach his head and pretending to be a massive sellout. While riding the wave of a simple MIDI lead-in into an anthemic pop chorus, he tells others who prefer an older version of himself to re-examine why they are still listening to his music.
This obsession of other people, and the reciprocation of those obsessing with him, leads into the next track, and the album’s breakout single “Cheerleader,” with its heart-grabbing, bombastic electronic beats with pop punk-inspired lyricism and vocals. The song also paints Robinson’s guilty pleasure with weirdly obsessive, toxic trends within internet fandoms, but ultimately understands that an artist can only truly evolve with the help of a dedicated audience.
Robinson’s more personal struggles with presenting himself is further exemplified on the track “Russian Roulette,” where he opens up about his own mental struggles, and ultimately realizes the true things in his life that are worth living for.
The lyrics, “The saddest thing about my whole machine, she says, and she’s right, ‘It depends on me,’” which directly calls back to one his most popular tracks “Sad Machine,” a song that helped build his loyal following, and a sound that some of his fans wish for him to return to.
Throughout the entire album, Porter layers troubling issues of self doubt in the face of an evolving internet culture that not only has grown more desensitized, but more judgmental of how we present our appearances and beliefs, as seen on “Kitsune Maison Freestyle,” which cleverly incorporates his pitched-up vocals as seen on “Nurture” to hide his true appearance. Somewhat echoing his previous projects, the track “Is There Really No Happiness?” calls back to nostalgic memories, painting an image of a screensaver landscape, browsing on an old family computer, reminiscing how he might never recapture this feeling again.
One of the more contentious tracks on the album, “Year of the Cup,” combines a sampled interview with Rapper Lil Wayne, explaining how most of his performance charisma stems from drinking and consuming drugs and alcohol. Not only does this track showcase some of Porter’s best lyricism on the album, but the sample further ties into how we mask ourselves when drinking socially, oftentimes accidentally lashing out when repressed emotions are brought front and center, or how these emotions become more further repressed and bottled up to maintain appearance.
Porter Robinson’s blunt honesty on “SMILE! :D” is married perfectly with the continued evolution of his style, showing that both artists and people don’t always need to put up a fake version of themselves to appease others, and that the parts of ourselves we don’t want to show are necessary to help us find the people who truly love us for who we are. Recognizing and finding the most important people in our life is necessary, because we truly can’t smile without them.
