Ryan Oakes - SLUMBERLAND (2021)

Hip Hop/Alternative Rock artist Ryan Oakes finally released his debut album, "SLUMBERLAND". Ryan Oakes is an artist I first heard in 2017, with the release of his EP "Evolve". After this I heard singles from him from time to time, but there was nothing that really impressed me as his music at the time was quite mediocre, or decent at best.
It wasn't until 2018 I heard Ryan actually start to "evolve" his sound. With singles that I really liked, like "Control" and "FML", he started to prove that he could be more than just a "decent rapper". The song FML was the first song I heard him start to bring in Pop-Punk elements to his music and fusing it with his rap to make a more unique sound.
Since then I started following his music more steadily. In 2019 he released two EPs, "PITY PARTY" and "A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS". Ryan continued with his Pop-Punk and Alt-Rock influenced sound and in 2020 he released many great singles, eventually leading up to this album.

When listening to SLUMBERLAND, I had already heard most of the songs, since he had already released a lot of them as singles. This definitely did not stop me from enjoying it though, as I already loved most of the songs. It was more like listening to a compilation of songs I liked, plus a couple new ones, while still being a completely new project for the people who haven't heard any of the songs previously.
A large amount of smaller artists try to release projects but struggles to get many people to hear them. By promoting most of the songs by themselves he manages to get a good amount of streams without needing everyone to listen to the full album, while still providing a project to his fans. For an artist like Ryan this method worked very well, unlike larger artists who've tried it, such as Joyner Lucas who took years to release an already announced album, just to release it with a few new songs. I had not heard about this new project until I saw it had been released.

On this album, Ryan Oakes perfectly mixes rap and alternative sounds of rock, creating his distinguished music style. The lyrics are kind of what you'd expect from an emo-type record and the album doesn't really try to speak on many different topics. Despite the lyrics and subject matter not being very versatile, Ryan still brings good and well fitting verses to the songs themselves. He also makes up for the album's lack of diversity with his great delivery and energy.
While his singing vocals are not exactly the best, it's what fits perfectly for the punk sound. Ryan knows exactly how to deliver incredible choruses and substantially catch the correct vibes and emotions he's trying to convey, both with his energetic delivery and mixing. He also adds background vocals at the right moments, sometimes using screaming, similar to what's often used in metal music.
The production is very good for the songs and uses a lot of typical alt-rock sounds like the electric guitar. It also includes essential hip hop drum patterns in a good tempo, making it fitting to rap over it, while keeping the alt-rock and punk style. I enjoy this a lot, but I would appreciate if he expanded his theme, both production wise and lyrically.
There's not many features on this album and that's because he doesn't need them to make the songs great, since he carries them on his own. The vocal features from MOD SUN and JordyPurp were still good and added to the songs making them even better, but Ryan was never carried by the few featured artists.
Overall, this album simply great and I do not have many critiques for it. I'm very happy with how it sounded and I definitely think Ryan Oakes has found his lane and where he's meant to be in music, as well as the formula of creating very enjoyable songs in his signature style. I enjoy every single song on this record quite a lot and I'm looking forward to continue hearing music from Ryan. I would like to see him collaborate with more and larger artists though, for a chance of branching out to a larger audience and get the recognition he deserves.