ALBUM REVIEW: Tilian’s ‘FACTORY RESET’ Is Pure Gold
ALBUM REVIEW: Tilian’s ‘FACTORY RESET’ Is Pure Gold
Can he do any wrong?
Words By: Bre Offenberger
Los Angeles-based alternative artist Tilian has released his latest solo full-length album, Factory Reset, out via Rise Records. The king of combining instrumentals that shouldn’t work together but do, Tilian has created yet another worthwhile album that prolongs his status as the best in the business.
A slithering synth leads the way to a zealous bundle of guitars that accent just how much passion Tilian has for his significant other. While they’re having second thoughts about their relationship amidst a rough patch in their personal life, Tilian begs them stay, promising he can help them find their way back. There’s a lot going on, synths running amuck as drums lightly dot around Tilian’s smooth vocals and harmonies. He reassures them he will never even think about leaving — in fact, he won’t tell them goodbye until their last breath. By the end, he’s confident enough to tell them they’ll soon feel back to normal — as long as they let him help them.
“Caught In The Carousel” was unveiled with a visualizer just days before the album officially dropped. Trippy synths come to life in front of an animated desert with a sun and moon that don the same colors as Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” A goosebump-inducing synth grows before vanishing as fiery guitars arrive. As the lyrics shoot down over Tilian’s face, surrounded by trippy entity after trippy entity, he reflects on his path of struggle, wondering how he came to the point where he can’t decide if he’s worthy of anything or not. As he explodes in the chorus, his face disappears and turns its focus to the night sky. He appears one last time before that gorgeous synth emerges once more, the instrumentation fades out and the answers to his questions remain as mysteries.
The title track, “Factory Reset,” sounds the most unlike Tilian — adorned with trap-like beats — but he makes it his own. It kicks off with squeals from a toned-down, manipulated Tilian before he fully emerges with trap drums bouncing all around him. He lets his prospective partner know he’s come to the realization they are everything he needs. As he thinks about the things that weigh him down every day, he instantly feels the load lightened just by remembering how this person makes him feel. The track ends with a maniacal laugh, leaving listeners to wonder if he really meant everything he just said.
Of the album, Tilian shares: “I was searching for meaning in isolation and found it in creating this album. [I wanted] to make the album that I want to hear. ‘What would be my favorite band?’ as opposed to, ‘What is everyone’s favorite band?'”
Factory Reset is the follow-up to 2018’s The Skeptic, which surged all the way to the top of Billboard’s Alternative New Artist chart. He also recently collaborated with Marigolds+Monsters and Travis Barker on “Falling out of Rhythm.” Though he is most well-known as the frontman of Dance Gavin Dance, Tilian has proven time and time again that he is immensely versatile and shouldn’t be confined inside that box. Let him out, and see the magic he can create.
