The GB Album Club 032 - Disorganized Fun by Ronald Jenkees

Duders! Welcome to the 32 edition of the Unofficial Giant Bomb Album Club! Last week, a lot of us were surprisingly meh on 1984 by Van Halen! Who'd have thunk it, other than some of us who have issues with the discourse around music that's evolved over the last decade and the canon that's been set (cough cough). This week, however, we go in an entirely different late 2000s electronic direction with Disorganized Fun by Ronald Jenkees! This album was selected by our good friend @redwing42, and you can listen with the links below:

Spotify

Apple Music

Youtube

The Unofficial GB Album Club! We make pools of albums and then choose one at random to listen to and discuss. In this case, the theme of the pool was Albums From Artists You Discovered in Video Game Soundtracks! (Sidenote: @redwing42 said he learned about Ronald Jenkees from the Before the Echo, formerly known as Sequence, which is a game I've never heard of.) We only have one album left in the cycle which we'll do next week, but if you want to talk some music shit or get in on the next cycle, come join us in our Discord.

Whenever things get too proggy in this club, you'll more than likely read a lengthy thing from me about my inability to enjoy music that gets too technical. I completely understand that there's beauty, even catharsis, in observing the way elements just fit together. And sometimes I'm capable of enjoying stuff like that! But more often than not, music that's too clean feels too antiseptic to me and I bounce. And for the record, some of this totally has to do with the aesthetics I've been hardwired to enjoy. But still.

Prog rock/metal is what's come up the most, but I maybe feel this way the most about electronic music. "Electronic music," is way too broad an umbrella term, mind you. But generally speaking, there's a part of my brain that delineates between music I know was created with an instrument and music I know was made with a keyboard. It's a step closer to the computer that I become aware of, so when you arrange your music a little too cleanly on top of that, it starts to feel too much like math for me. And not the genre of math rock, like literal math. Melody + Keyboard = Music. Calculated.

You see where I'm going. Disorganized Fun felt a little... wait for it... too organized for me.

But here's the frustrating part for me: Despite everything I've just complained about, I also can't help but feel charmed by music that was clearly made by one guy in a room just having fun and making stuff. So even though there's a lot about this album that isn't for me, I couldn't help but root for it or be mad at it. It rules that there are people like Ronald Jenkees, and even if his aesthetic isn't for me, I'm happy he's doing his thing and I'm happy people enjoy it.

Art. It is good.

Favorite Songs: "Throwing Fire," "Minimal MC," "Inverted Mean"

I learned about Ronald Jenkees and this specific album through less than orthodox means. I remember this montage video using Red Lemonade Remixed from his Days Away album and it led to me following them on YouTube. I recommend giving his YouTube account at least a cursory glance as you can tell he's an incredibly keyboardist. Likewise, his rise to relaative mainstream popularity is an interesting story. He made a mix of comedy videos and music focused ones, but when Bill Simmons from ESPN commissioned and used his music for his podcast, he immediately shot up the iTunes download rankings.

The one thing that nags me about this album is that is ALL feels like highlight reel music. Good in isolation but I've tuned out when the whole album drives hard in that direction.

@shindig: The phrase "menu music" crossed my mind a few times. I thought I was just being a dick.

Is there room here to mention the Benjamin Feltes discussion? I love Jenkees' music, been a fan for a long time since Before The Echo had its original name. I even own a lot of his music, and play it frequently. Disorganised Fun is good, but not my favourite - it's lacking a bit of oomph the other releases have. Throwing Fire is my favourite track, it's the one that got me properly into this artist. I find it works better as background music rather than something to focus on, which is funny since my introduction to the artist was a rythm game that mainly featured Jenkees tracks.

That said, every time I listen now, I'm plagued with the awareness that Feltes uses an alter ego that, judging by the self-titled album's imagery and the "hello youtubes" introductions to videos, is supposedly someone with learning difficulties. Is that my read on the portrayal influencing my opinion? Possibly. The fact that it's a potential read that Feltes is using "Anyone can create anything" as a hook to sell music is... a little iffy; As if the music wasn't good enough to stand on its own, so he had to make it seem like he was starting on the back-foot in terms of personal background. I think it's a me problem, but I spent a long time denying that this was even a possibility when it's probably true. Could this be taking the spotlight away from someone who actually comes from that background and makes music? Maybe, I don't know; RJ is still pretty niche after all.

I'm reminded of the Very Online Show about internet sluething every time I put the case forward to someone, so, you know, take this all with a massive pinch of salt. There's far worse in the media industry, and ultimately Jenkees inspires much more creativity and positivity than many artists, so it's a swings and roundabouts sort of thing.

If you liked the grittier sounds on Disorganised Fun, I recommend Alpha Numeric next. If you enjoyed the RnB stylings, check out Rhodes Deep next.