Fifty Grand Shines in Only a Minute and a Half on “i will take the Ring, though i do not know the way”

Underground icon Fifty Grand has made everything from trap beats to neoclassical compositions over the span of his career. Regardless of the genre, his music is haunting, unstable, and enveloping. Each of his projects have their own distinct energy and sound pallet, often with an obscure title that has no literal significance to the listener, but it’s arbitrary specificity let’s you know that it’s intimate. For example, Helena’s Skin and I Don’t Know Why sound like headings to diary entries you probably shouldn’t be reading.

His new single, “i will take the Ring, though i do not know the way” draws inspiration from each of his pitstops along his 8-album career thus far. The cavernous, eerily plucked intro loop is a staple in Fifty Grand’s repertoire. He first used it on “Lake” from his self-titled instrumental album in 2012, and then in 2013, he sang over a whimsical, spine-chilling melody plucked throughout the first half of “Scary All Over.” The style got even more unnerving on “The People You Love” from 2014’s I Don’t Know Why. Then in 2015, Fifty stripped it back on “Waltz Of The Hanging Hills” from Helena’s Skin and “RejectionLetter” from SongsThatRemindYouOfHome by Bones and Dylan Ross (Rozz Dyliamz). “i will take the Ring” is indeed the next evolution of this sound. This time, Fifty fuses it with other textbook styles he’s honed over the years.

The distorted drums on “i will take the Ring” sound like the drums on 2012’s “Rabid Mastiff,” but held underwater, bobbing up at points. His siren-like singing sounds like the stretched out crooning on “Angeles Crest Highway” from I Don’t Know Why. The reverb bleeding from the vocals gently coats the jagged, pummeling kicks in the back of the mix.

Despite the somewhat silly Lord of the Rings reference in the title, and the blown-out selfie as the single cover, this song is seriously brilliant. “i will take the Ring, though i do not know the way” is a demo for his new album Paul’s Staircase, which is set to drop this winter. He recently released another demo called “friends of yours,” which sort of sounds like a bad-trip Beatles song in the modern era. In a Tweet, Fifty called Paul’s Staircase a “DREAM POP NIGHTMARE.” Never in my life have I been so excited for winter.

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