In the early stages of making Wild Pink’s fourth album, lead singer John Ross was diagnosed with cancer. While he considered abandoning the album, he eventually finished it with the encouragement of his doctors.

As an established band with three albums under their belt, there was hope for “ILYSM”. However, it fell short in a multitude of ways.

From the start, it is weak with “Cahooting the Multiverse,” which sounds like a knock off of an “Of Monsters and Men” song. It isn’t bad, but feels unoriginal and uninspired. This problem persists throughout with only a few exceptions.

One of these exceptions is title song “ILYSM”  which actually matches the energy that the title gives. There is a hopeful romantic feeling that builds up to a climax where the instruments are finally allowed to play to their full potential. This song was what I had hoped the whole album would be like.

The collaboration with singer Julien Baker in “Hold My Hand” is a pleasant surprise. It brings extra life to the song, but still falls short for me. It still contains all the same problems as the rest of the album.

Immediately following, “Hell is Cold,” is an improvement, bringing more variety in tempo. As the song ends, it has a nice piano outro, but that gets cut off and ends abruptly in a way that doesn’t seem purposeful. It makes Wild Pink seem like sloppy beginners despite being on their fourth album.

This album’s main draw is definitely the vocals, which are relaxing and smooth. But in order to highlight the vocals, I think they sacrificed the instrumentation on most of the album. 

 “ILYSM” just feels like the soundtrack of an indie romance movie. It wasn’t really meant to stand on its own, but it would work perfectly to enhance another piece. 

If you like Vampire Weekend, Hippo Campus, or the Wombats, you might enjoy this album, however despite being a fan of them myself, I still found this album to be mediocre.