Guard takes the piss out of pain with 'IT WAS ALL A MEME...'.
The "King of Cringe" embraces his status as a "memelord" with his long-awaited sophomore album.
South African-Australian singer-songwriter and self-proclaimed “King of Cringe” Guard is well known on the underground pop music scene for his work as a songwriter, penning tracks with American singer-songwriter LIZ Y2K (“Last Call” - 2018), American singer-songwriter Slayyyter (“Cha Ching” - 2019), and American singer-songwriter and rapper That Kid (“Mile High Club” - 2021) to name a few. As a singer, he went viral for his song “Pineapple Crush” shortly after making his debut in 2017 and would go on to release his debut album, The Identified Patient, in June 2020 as well as his debut EP, RAT KING, in November 2021 before putting out his second studio album, IT WAS ALL A MEME…, late last month.
IT WAS ALL A MEME… combines the sadcore pop (“jester”) and emo trap (“kamikaze” with Australian singer Soarer) sounds of his previous projects to create a dark pop record with elements of Afrobeat (“bruises”) and electro pop (“it was all a meme…”), but lyrically, the album sticks to Guard’s usual subjects of toxic relationships, heartbreak, and mental health.
“luvbomb” is a minimal dark pop number where Guard details the mundane chaos of the fast life before revealing its effect on his psyche in the chorus. There’s a spooky bassline on this track that creeps along like a spider, and the horror-inspired music video adds to the ominous atmosphere of the song. “color by numbers” is an emotional sadcore trap moment on which a heartbroken Guard laments over a tumultuous relationship. The production is similar to that of The Identified Patient and RAT KING but updated with a refined quality and evolved perspective that adds a level of maturity that I feel was absent on the aforementioned past projects.
In addition to other familiar topics like toxic love (“i dare u” with American singer-songwriter Lisa Terror) and substance abuse (“stoned before i function”), IT WAS ALL A MEME… sees Guard leaning into his memelord side — Guard currently runs five different meme pages on Instagram, and at one point, had over 900,000 followers across all of his accounts. Many of his accounts have since been taken down with Guard proclaiming himself “IG’s Most Hated” — within his music whereas he’s previously kept the two separate. Several tracks on the album sample iconic Internet memes, most notably “clear eyes” — an Afrobeat bop about an intoxicating love affair that samples “Daddy chill” and “Watch your profamity” — and “stop being nice to me” — an electro pop banger about owning one’s toxic behavior that samples “DESGUSTANG!” (IYKYK).
Now, it’s worth mentioning that there was some slight controversy upon the record’s announcement, as the album cover was created using AI, thus sparking a debate about the ethics of AI-generated art while raising concerns about AI potentially taking the place of graphic designers — a terrifying and very real possibility. Personally, I absolutely question the ethics of AI art and believe that graphic designers should be prioritized over AI, however, there were a number of people sending hate toward Guard and labeling him as being “part of the problem”, and I do not believe that he is the enemy that we need to be directing our anger toward in the debate over AI, but I guess that’s to be expected when you’re “IG’s most hated”.
While his previous projects, especially The Identified Patient, fell a bit flat at times, IT WAS ALL A MEME… is a solid body of work that marks the beginning of a new chapter in Guard’s artistic journey and solidifies him as a triple threat: Singer, songwriter, and certified memelord!
IT WAS ALL A MEME… is available now across all online and streaming platforms!
Watch the music video for “luvbomb”: