Open Mike Eagle & Kenny Segal's 'DOOMED!' Turns a Breakup Into the Funniest Sad Record of the Year
Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal have known each other for the better part of twenty years and never made a full record together until now. DOOMED! arrived on Backwoodz Studioz on August 14th, and by the artists’ own Bandcamp framing it is “the world’s first half-whimsical break-up album” — fifteen tracks written while a relationship dissolved, produced start to finish by Segal. The Skinny gave it five stars and called it “easily up there with one of the best hip-hop releases of the year.”
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Segal builds from live-feeling low end rather than sample loops locked to a grid, and the bass tends to arrive a hair behind the kick, which gives tracks like “Out to Lunch” a slouch that suits the subject matter. The Skinny’s phrase for the whole production job — “gorgeously scored by the transformative Kenny Segal” — puts the emphasis in the right place: this is scoring, not beatmaking.
The Spatial Dynamics: The vocal sits unusually dry and forward while the instrumentation blooms behind it. On “Schrödinger’s Green Room (There but Uninvited)” that separation is the joke and the wound at once — the voice close enough to be uncomfortable, the music keeping a polite distance.
Standout Performance
Eagle’s writing, which Bandcamp Daily’s Dylan Green pins precisely: “Eagle’s tendency to spin tried-and-true lifeisms into modern allegories of disconnection works wonders for a man who probably wishes he was numb to all of this by now.”
Why It’s Certified
Gothic Tropic lifts “Streets of Rage: Public Arguments Edition,” Hemlock Ernst takes “Unfinished Concrete Initials,” and billy woods lands on “She Swear I’m Colorblind.” “Infinity War Spoilers” and “Watching a Movie Called Freedom By Myself” are the two that hurt. Slant’s verdict: “The duo turns pop-cultural excess into an intimate and infectious soundtrack for grief.” Certified great.