Original Review: July 31st 2025

VANISHER!

An album I've been anxiously waiting for for over a year now has finally been released and to say my expectations have been met would be a severe understatement. This album completely exceeded any and all expectations I could have had, even with having listened to I Didn't Mean To Haunt You and Scrapyard and regarding them as some of the best musical work of our generation this album is still a surprise. It's such an incredibly exciting and refreshing experience to get to listen to such a high quality and masterfully produced album with so so SO much put into it, so much detail, so much to feel, so much to dissect, so much to enjoy. It came out during a time when I had gotten kind of tired of music and it's actually revived my excitement for music again.

(Also I can tell Quadeca was inspired by Mid-air Thief because of some parts of this album hehe, amazing inspiration)

NO QUESTIONS ASKED

Is a beautiful beginning to the album, it holds your hands through an exciting and whimsical journey that is able to be so engaging even with its length and relatively repetitive nature, it's an amazing showcase of how to keep a song interesting and engaging with all the small new details it adds on top and on top of each part. The piano is powerful, the vocals are dreamy and the structure of this song is fantastic. It's a song I've been listening to a lot. it feels like hope, determination and just so alive.

WAGING WAR

Is an enthralling, mysterious and intense song full of beautifully orchestrated strings, unique drums, synths and an incredible vocal performance from Oleka and Quadeca. WAGING WAR is the first glimpse into the masterful lyrical songwriting of Vanisher, with so much substance and gorgeous writing like "Breathe, it's your own advice" and "I Surrender to my heart". In this song Quadeca is making the decision to vanish and set sail.

RUIN MY LIFE

Is a calm departure from the rage felt on WAGING WAR, there's a sense of peace on this song as Quadeca talks about ruining his own life to make it his own. This song is beautiful, with its soothing guitar (incredibly produced btw, producing acoustic guitar is so hard for me, Quadeca how do you do it) the song then transforms from this calm and peaceful acceptance of his choice to the regret starting with the line "What have you done?" repeated again and again. This song is the song that reminds me the most of Mid-air Thief with its sound choice with the gorgeous guitar, reverberated metallic sounds and the synth in the last half of the song. To be inspired by Mid-Air Thief is the best choice ever, this song is wonderful and I love it.

GODSTAINED #3

Is the first single released in the Vanisher era and the song that came out 3 days before I met Quadeca in person after his show in Berlin. He was an incredibly kind and down to earth person, although I've always seen him as sort of larger than life because of how much I love his work, I found out that day that he was just a normal person. We shook hands twice, he signed a Scrapyard vinyl that my friend had bought for me and my Vanisher Hoodie I had bought before the show. I'm from Iceland so we talked about his experience filming there, he asked about any advice on what to do in Berlin and he mentioned Checkpoint Charlie and I mentioned that we had turned Checkpoint Charlie into this insane character that birthed half of Berlin and he laughed. He and his band then went into an Uber they had just ordered and they said it was nice meeting us and left.

For the next 24 hours I was completely out of it and zoned out. It's a strange thing to be so affected by meeting such a normal person but Quadeca has been my main inspiration in music for the past 2 years. I've cried to Born Yesterday. Easier, Being Yourself and You Tried That Thing Where You're Human have all been soundtracks to different heartbreaks in my life and for the past 2 years his songs have been in my most listened to songs every month consistently. I'm very thankful for that experience, it's incredibly cool to be able to say I've met my biggest inspiration in music and had such a normal and pleasant conversation with him. He's just a guy but his art is out of this world and GODSTAINED is kind of the soundtrack to that awesome experience. So GODSTAINED is GOATED! (It's also just goated even without that experience lol)

AT A TIME LIKE THIS

Is a song I didn't really like that much at first. It was a genre of music I don't like too much. It's hard to explain what it is but I wasn't a big fan of the reversed snare and rising trumpet. That completely changed though over time; I like this song a lot, it grows into this incredibly triumphant song that feels like victory. It's the perfect song for when you're stressed about something and then shit gets GOOD AND FIXED! It's the soundtrack to rising through something scary and terrible, I LOVE the chapter after 1:55, the tone switches from being unsure to clarity and determination. I love the feeling this song gives me, it's a song that's grown on me and it deserves that. It's a wonderfully and incredibly made song that progresses so much as it goes on.

MONDAY

Is a song Garfield would PUKE TO! But I'm not Garfield so I love this song to death. Quadeca has this weird power to always release music at the perfect time for it to fit with my life. This song came out right before I had a trip to Denmark to see Billie Eilish live and this song was so perfect to how I was feeling at that time. I was worried about how my girlfriend felt about me and I was gonna be gone for 2 days after having a conversation that made me worried and doubtful of how the future was gonna be. This song literally says "God, I'm losing my grip on the runway" and "Don't you give up on a Monday" as I was listening to it on a plane while feeling like that, like WHAT??? (PS: I was just overthinking and we're the best couple in the world and I'm in the best relationship I could have ever asked for hehe, the future is bright AF)

MONDAY is beautiful, my god do I love this song. Amazingly produced, so much feeling in this song, it's an emotional and powerful love song and I absolutely love the part at 3:05. The out of tune synth alongside the beautiful piano is just AAA. Quadeca's vocal performance is incredible.

DANCING WITHOUT MOVING

Is an infectious and incredibly fun song. I absolutely love the vibe with this song, the hook is sick! I love it. It's one of the biggest bangers on this album, it's such a fun song to listen to, it's catchy, fun and just an absolutely great song all around. But the song after this one is one that I need to talk about, that song being...

THAT'S WHY (#1)

Is my favorite song on this album. I heard the hook in this song over a year ago in a snippet and I knew even back then that this would be my favorite song once it came out. This song has the best hook I've heard in any song in recent times. "That's right, alright, it don't get any better than this life" is the most catchy and amazing hook I've heard in so long. I've been singing it nonstop since it came out. Not only is the hook amazing but the song as a whole is incredible. the flute, the guitar, the drums, the structure, the piano at the end, Quadeca's production is just so incredible on this album. I love this song to death, I just wanna listen to it over and over and over again. It's so high up there with my favorite songs of all time. It's hard to beat Born Yesterday though because of how emotionally striking that song is, but THAT'S WHY sits right alongside Born Yesterday as my favorite songs of all time.

I DREAM ABOUT SINKING

Is a beautiful ambient track that feels incredibly cinematic. If you play this song while driving it feels like life is changing and something incredibly serious is going on even though I'm just going to the grocery store to buy ice cream. Shit feels like a movie!

NATURAL CAUSES

Is where a big shift in Vanisher happens. From this whimsical journey on the sea, NATURAL CAUSES is the start of this darker shift on the album. The production is incredible (like with every song on this album). I love the guitar and the use of the out of tune synth, it really feels like paranoia and anxiety; the way it builds the fear as the song goes on is so well created.

THUNDRRR

Is a song that's an absolute banger, filled with so much anger, fury, and insanity. I love the visuals of this song in the movie. The song is incredibly fun, I love the first verse, the production is so fun and interesting. I think this is the song that I was the most hesitant about on the first listen; the more I've listened to it the more I appreciate just how awesome it is. It goes so hard; I love the verses so much. The chorus is good too but I feel like the song shines the most during the verses. I love the ending too with the guitar. This is the perfect song to pet your cat to, if you want the cat to not have any fur afterwards that is.

THE GREAT BAKUNAWA

Is a gorgeously intense and daunting song where Danny goes hard as a Filipino dragon! I think this is a song I'm least likely to listen to just during normal life, but in the album this song is awesome. Quadeca has such an insane amount of skill with creating a universe and story in his concept albums. This song is such a cool and cinematic experience; I love the sounds, the storytelling, the larger than life feeling of it all. Bro has a dragon in his concept album and it works???

FORGONE (#2)

Is a song I can't believe was made. This is quite possibly the best love song I've ever heard. The lyrics on this one are sparse but so powerful. The amount of weight the lyrics on this song has is spectacular. I love the first lyrics on this song: "Forgone, I see the child that she once was, holding me tight like her teddy bear." There's something so striking with these lyrics; it paints such a beautiful picture of healing your inner child, to be loved and cared for by a partner. It's an emotionally brilliant depiction of love that hits the root of what it means to be loved and to love.

"Oh, where is your spirit in them? Where will it land in the end? I can't forgive how they hurt you, I wouldn't hurt you again."

Is such a beautiful line. To love someone that was hurt in the past and to treat them how they should have been treated all along is such a gift. To have two people find each other that treat each other how they always deserved to be treated is such a beautiful and wonderful thing to have, something to strive for. This song is incredible. I think it's a perfect song, the best love song I've ever heard. It speaks upon the things that we all feel but can't put into words, the most wonderful parts of love that most of us can't fathom.

That's just the lyrics though; the composition is incredible too. It feels like a song that I can't believe was created. It has this feeling to it, this timeless feeling to it. How did a person conceive of this song? How does this song exist? It feels unbelievable that it's possible. This is a song that's flawless, a masterpiece. And the same could also be said about...

CASPER

Is the final track on this album and is an incredible ending to this album. The song is the most cinematic on the album; it has this haunting feeling to it, it's dark and beautiful. The instrumentation is incredible here; it's intense, it grows and grows and grows until it becomes a distorted and intense, stressful and frantic depiction of Death.

Casper meaning ghost. Quadeca is murdered by the ocean, as shown in the movie. We see Quadeca trying to get back onto his boat as his life flashes before his eyes, as he tries desperately to stay above water. He tries as best as he can to survive, but the ocean is ruthless; he can't get back onto his boat. He tries and tries; the song distorts and he tries as best as he can to stay above his demise until the finale of the protagonist takes place, his end, his outro. His limbs lose power, his breath inhales no oxygen but instead ocean, his life wilts away, he sinks, he dies, he disappears.

He vanishes.