#Empathogen

[raredye]

WILLOW - b i g f e e l i n g s (Official Visualizer)

[darth-maya]

The song of the day is

WILLOW - wanted feat. kamasi washington

[aliwnx]

𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 - 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡

꧁ i do my flows and then i get so lost ꧂

[1000-year-old-virgin]

Willow - Down

[redbullsupernova]

WILLOW’s ceremonial contrafact (empathogen deluxe) feels like the kind of album that doesn’t so much begin as it erupts into being, like a seed that grew roots and leaves all at once, spilling over the boundaries of what you thought an album could be. It’s alive in a way that most music tries to be but often isn’t—pulling you in not because it’s polished or perfect, but because it knows how to make you feel every emotion at the same time.

The album is a kaleidoscope of sounds—jazz and funk, pop and Indian raga, Native American throat singing and Gregorian chant—and somehow it doesn’t feel like a collection of mismatched pieces. It feels like a language only WILLOW knows how to speak. The bass lines are funky and alive, the synths drift in like waves of smoke, and the drums don’t just keep time; they disrupt it, break it open, then stitch it back together in some strange new rhythm. It’s music that moves and breathes, that changes shape depending on where you’re standing when you hear it.

Like all great albums, ceremonial contrafact (empathogen deluxe) doesn’t ask for your time—it takes it. You tell yourself it’ll be just one track, maybe two, but before you know it, you’re in deep, the kind of deep where you forget what you were supposed to be doing because the music is doing something to you. For me, that track, the one that keeps pulling me into the loop, has been “False Self.”

The bass line in False Self comes in like it’s trying to tell you something, like it’s got a secret it can’t quite bring itself to say out loud. It doesn’t just anchor the track; it pulses through it, steady but restless, syncopated in a way that feels like a heart out of rhythm. And maybe that’s the point—a song about the things you carry that don’t sit right, the heaviness of trying to be everything to everyone while wondering what’s left for yourself.

The drums are their own kind of conversation. They skip and stutter, not like they’re broken but like they’re breaking—falling apart in some places, holding steady in others. They aren’t just keeping time; they’re negotiating with it. And over this shifting foundation, there’s the guitar, hanging back like a quiet witness, its notes bending and echoing into the distance, as if afraid of what might happen if it stepped forward. The synths rise and fall like breaths, heavy with a kind of tension that never quite releases. This is music that understands the weight of silence, the way it shapes the space around what’s been left unsaid.

And then there’s WILLOW, right in the middle of it all, her voice sharp enough to cut through the layers but raw enough to feel like it’s cutting her, too. She sings like someone trying to exorcise something, her delivery swinging between a whisper and a wail, between vulnerability and fury. Her harmonies don’t soften the blow—they amplify it, like a choir of her own selves, each one singing a different truth. And when her voice distorts, when it cracks under the weight of the production, it doesn’t feel like a flaw; it feels like the most honest thing in the world.

What I love about this album is that it doesn’t try to smooth over its rough edges. It embraces them, leans into them, because that’s where the truth is. WILLOW’s voice cracks and distorts at times, but it feels deliberate, like she’s showing you what it looks like to push yourself past the breaking point and still keep going. Her lyrics wrestle with the tension between authenticity and performance, between the self you are and the self the world demands you to be. “My false self must die” she sings, and it’s not a plea. It’s a declaration, bold and unflinching.

This isn’t an album that tries to resolve anything for you. It’s not about answers; it’s about the questions that linger after the lights come up, the messiness of trying to exist in a world that wants you to be everything all the time. The production reflects this tension—quiet moments that feel like a held breath, crashing into dense, overwhelming walls of sound that don’t let you look away. The music is both intimate and vast, as if WILLOW has figured out how to make you feel like you’re alone in a room with her while simultaneously standing on the edge of a universe too big to understand.

By the time it’s over, you’re not left with the sense that you’ve finished something. You’re left with the sense that you’ve begun something, that the album has opened a door and asked you to step through it without knowing what’s on the other side. That’s the brilliance of ceremonial contrafact. It doesn’t try to tie itself up in a neat little bow. It lets itself be wild, unruly, unfinished in the most beautiful way. It reminds you that art isn’t about resolution—it’s about creating a space where all the contradictions can exist, where the chaos feels like home. WILLOW has built that space here, and it’s one I want to keep coming back to, again and again.

Layered into the experience of listening to all 39 minutes of this album is the sound of a young artist in motion. You hear her searching, yearning, learning, and growing. You hear her fighting against everything that tells her to stop, failing in the way we all do when we’re trying to become, burning with the kind of intensity that leaves nothing untouched, and then starting over again, because what else is there to do? It’s messy and relentless and beautiful, a magnificent journey that feels like it was never meant to be polished—it was meant to be felt. And we’re lucky. Lucky that WILLOW decided not to hold any of it back, lucky that she allowed us to go on this ride with her, through all its highs and lows, through its moments of doubt and its bursts of clarity. This is an album that doesn’t just move—it moves you. It’s not just hers anymore. It’s ours now, too.

[deviiancetv]

Playlist Check!? Album Reviews of 2024

Albums I LOVED:

Eternal Sunshine by Ariana Grande

Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii

Quantum Baby by Tinashe

Still by Erika DeCasier

MEGAN Act I & II by Megan Thee Stallion

Mental by Yseult

Klub Fetish by Kuntfetish

Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay

Club Shy by Shygirl

✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Honorable Mentions:

World Wide Whack by Tierra Whack

C, XOXO by Camila Cabello

Dauntless Manifesto by Cupcakke

Empathogen by Willow

GNX by Kendrick Lamar

Dark Times by Vince Staples

Trench by Audrey Nuna

Bird’s Eye by Ravyn Lenae

GRIP by Serpentwithfeet

✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Bonus:

Gallards Game by Vonzell Sly

Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain by Raveena

Portrait by Samara Joy

Short n Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter

TYLA by Tyla

Moth by Fana Hues

[kindameek]

WILLOW

For Allure Magazine 📸 Zhong Lin

Wearing Iris Van Herpen

[musictheloml]

THE ALBUM IS OUT EVERYONE

[steampunkprincess147]

empathogen review

I know no one is looking for my opinions on this new Willow album, but I love that she is experimenting and genre-bending! Her vocal maturity is really shining through, and I enjoyed how emotional this album was.

I felt like I was drinking a fizzy fruit punch in a sunroom while painting, 8.9/10

[thechanelmuse]

WILLOW - run!

During her interview with Rolling Stone, Willow stated, "I wanted [this song] to feel like you're on the verge of a panic attack."

Mission accomplished, Ms. Smith. Distorted, breathy vocal display to portray racing thoughts, uneasiness, and skipping breaths with a production to match. Black and white visuals to depict inner turmoil and entrapment before progressing in color to evoke freedom. This young lady is ridiculous.

A pen game, can sing her ass off, a visionary, and a multi-instrumentalist? I don't wanna see her name in none of those damn nepotism convos. Pure talent.

"Run!" is featured on her newly released sixth album, empathogen. Solid project. But my only gripe is that half of the songs are too short. Idk who started this trend of condensed track duration. This is not the days of Motown patterning the song structure of gospel music because that's certainly isn't even the execution. I want full songs. Nonetheless, Willow just keeps getting better and better musically and I'm happy that this is her outlet.

[disneyrares]

[tantaolas]

who was I before Willow released empathogen?

[1000-year-old-virgin]

Willow - Between I and She