Trevor Something: Soulless Computer Boy and The Eternal Render

There was a cute little box that critics and music industry brahmins assigned to synthwave and Trevor Something has chewed, clawed and gnawed his way out of it. Soulless Computer Boy and The Eternal Render simply exceeds the boundaries assigned by what some considered a practical joke of a genre. The songs on Trevor Something’s LP aren’t going to shock you by breaking any musical taboos – the sound is as firmly footed in the New Wave, synth and pop of the ’80s as ever – but by the depth of emotion. Tracks like “Procreation” and “Girlfriend” lull you with their serenity – a flat mirrored lake impenetrable and unmovable as a photograph – but it’s a stitch-up. The new-New Romantic “Do It Again” is a marvelous pop song, not just for the genre but for music as a whole. I defy the hardest critic to listen to this and not find themselves moving. The depth of emotion on Soulless Computer Boy and The Eternal Render is not what’s most shocking – it’s the variety, from the breathless longing and ecstasy cocaine adrenal pop that are the common currency of synthwave but the more complex “Lost and Found” and almost Homeric love affair-and-breakdown saga of “Pure.” The second half of the album is made up of moody ambient instrumental tracks that don’t feel quite right here; the vocal half is really where Trevor shines.