DIMM035: Hawaii Part II is not the best album.
But it is my favorite album.
(if you're wondering about me, go to the end, new vid coming soon, probably May :3)
Back in about 2020 I was watching Youtube and noticed this video on my sidebar. I didn't click on it, but the thumbnail was interesting. Then I saw it again, and again, and again and over and over and over Youtube kept recommending me this album.
I sometimes like to try and spite youtube, call their bluff and just not click on whatever they are showing me. To show my inanimate web browser who's the real boss, of course. But sometimes if they keep going forever, Youtube knows something I don't.
Eventually I caved and listened to it, and my god, it was the best music I had ever heard. The beautiful orchestral sounds, the piano, the chimes, the violins, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I didn't even know what I wanted from music, and this gave it to me. I would ask people, doesn't it not sound like 2012? (Because in my mind, 2012 was the year of Bajan Canadian hunger games, nothing serious or beautiful could've been happening at that same time) I distinctly remember a comment saying that Joe Hawley invented music, and that's kinda what it felt like! It felt like the gospel, like I had to spread the good word of the lord and nobody would listen!
Introduction to the Snow sets the stage for what this whole album is going to be. The beautiful piano and singing instantly got me hooked on this.
Isle Unto Thyself has this fast paced drum loop in the background that gives it this momentum, it describes the scene of Hawaii and meeting a girl at a party. Black Rainbows is this cocophany of high and low chants and percussion from all directions, with this infectious bassline stepping us through the song. White Ball has this male female duet with some sexy violins accompanying the two leads dancing together. They are in love, it's kinda like a mix between yaoi and yuri, I think I'll call it "yaori".
Murders has this piano leading us through the song that swings from somber and subdued to desperately slamming on the keys as loud as possible. The end sees the violins from the previous song come back as you get the sense of someone running. Talk of a picnic in the forest transforms into crafting an alibi.
宇宙ステーションのレベル7 (Space Station Level 7) is a song where the only word I understand is the start of the chorus saying "Heaven!" The rest of the song is in Japanese and French. The triumphant horns, crashing cymbals, and angels singing sound like you are entering Heaven itself.
The Mind Electric plays backward in full first, just to really get across the pretentiousness in case you didn't get it from the last song. Sorry I'm supposed to be positive, I can still say the first part in reverse from listening to this so many times. The singing and instruments are all electronically distorted, it goes back and forth from light piano and a guy pleading to insanity in court, to deep dark slamming piano and electric guitar behind a judge telling him the crushing reality of the punishments for his actions. He is sentenced to electrotherapy, which drives him even more insane, he starts hearing more and more disembodied voices around him as the song goes on.
The penultimate track is a very somber, piano only song where our protagonist is alone at sea and imagines having his love back while trying to go to sleep; it is his Stranded Lullaby. At some points, he can almost hear her singing with him again.
Dream Sweet in Sea Major has the same start as the first song on the album, with some slightly different lyrics it talks of a siren that would forgive him, a girl that can make things right, and how things will be different this time. There is this violin plucking accompanying piano flying up and down the scales makes it feel like we are weightlessly flying through this song. There is a chord change halfway through that pictures our protagonist imagining himself back at the White Ball, and with hints of the following Murders. He dances with her for a final song, enjoys his bliss, and all we hear afterwards is waves crashing on the rocks.
This was incredible when I heard it. I had never heard something so beautiful and that felt like this was what I was made to listen to. It got me interested in music, seeing that it could be for me not just for my mom and dad or other people that I perceived to be weird. That music was more than subscribing to a genre like "country" or "pop", but a network of artists and connections and cultures and vibes. That maybe there was more to music than I first thought.
And this is why it is my favorite album, it helped me on my way to discovering what music could be for me and me only.
But I'm gonna be honest, it is not the best album.
Back in 2020, I would've seen this as heresy, how dare you ignore the message of the lord!?!
The astute among you may have noticed that I left out two songs when going through the album. Tracks 8 and 9 are Labyrinth and Time Machine respectively, and they are easily the worst songs on the album. Labyrinth is a "rap" kinda thing that doesn't really have any bearing on the story and feels super out of place with the rest of the songs with the chiptune instrumentals in the back.
And Time Machine is a song where most of the lyrics are "ooo live the dream in a time machine, we've been waiting forever" over and over again. And just when you think it is over it comes back for another chorus for no reason.
And in case it wasn't obvious earlier, I don't like Space Station Level 7 anymore. The instrumentals get repetitive very quickly, and that is literally all this song has other than autotunemaxxed vocals that I can't understand.
And finally, there are technically two versions of The Mind Electric, one that is a normal version and one that is glitchy and partially missing. Just pick one to put on the album and scrap the other. It's cool until like the 5th time you listen to it and then it sucks. Miracle Musical released a special Hawaii: Part II: Part II album that has a ton of demos, he could've just put it there!
But all of these criticisms I didn't see back in the day, which means that I can use this album as kind of a mile-marker. This was a 10 back in 2020, and today it would probably be like a 7. It's still good! Just not to the extent that I thought it was all the way back then.
But if I hadn't been blown away by this album, I don't think I would have given a chance to albums like MM FOOD or Mother Earth's Plantasia or BRAT or Imaginal Disk or Magic Alive or F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! or On Guitar.
I wouldn't have been on the hunt for another experience like listening to this album for the first time, and that makes it my favorite.
Ok now for the DIMM4 type thing.
Hi I'm still making videos, as I said it should be out in May. This one has taken too long. I want it to be done :3.
Thanks for reading this article if you did, I'd recommend it, I think at this moment that I did an ok job. I have never reviewed music before so I think that this is a good starting point going on an album that I know by heart from front to back. Feel free to leave your feedback in my contact me form. Anyway yeah the video is coming soon I swear!