Sin7ven Somersault Days Review
Throughout his new album Somersault Days, Sin7ven is trying to escape yesterday.
It’s been 4 years and change since Finnish rapper and de facto leader of Boomslang Crew Sin7ven dropped a record. His last album, Aal, was a cold meditation on depression. That record sounding like slowly freezing in the wilderness trapped with a final thought about all the ways you’ve screwed up in life. Somersault Days, on the other hand, sounds a little warmer.
This is not to say that all demons have been banished. On “Lacuna” he remarks on anxiety and depression causing friends and socks alike to slowly fade. And while other tracks paint a brighter picture than past albums, there is a pervading sense of nostalgia for worse days.
“I’m losing all my socks and half my friends are disappearing
Never choosing all my thoughts and all of them are interfering
(Hedgehog’s dilemma but weird.. ya hear)”
Sin7ven raps with the referential punchlines of a battle rapper turned songwriter. On “Nothing Bothers Me” he name checks Possessed from the now-defunct British rap group Rhyme Asylum. His style sounding like a younger Possessed who’s as likely to reference video games as 20th century philosophy. However, unlike lesser rappers with wordplay-heavy styles, Sin7ven is able to write whole songs rather than just collections of one-liners. The singing throughout the record, while not new in his discography, was a welcome surprise in both its quality and frequency. “Pscyhopompom,” in particular, is an earworm.
The downside of a punchline rap is, of course, that each new punchline has the chance to be a groaner. The record is not without a few. The opener “Imago” has interesting things to say about the current Digital Age and art in general, but lines such as “Carpe diem feels far from a DM/ You’re all the same, yet so far from agreeing” can’t help but make me roll my eyes. However, for every bad line there are whole verses of gold, and it never drags down what is overall an excellently written album.
The production on the album, largely self-produced by Sin7ven himself along with 2 placements by blackwinterwells, is the perfect backdrop for his rapping, equally displaying his ear for melodies while still leaving enough room for the rhymes themselves. The 2 features, blackwinterwells now appearing on the mic and his Boomslang crewmate creepysusie, both provide a welcome change of pace while staying tonally consistent with the rest of the record. As a long time fan of creepysusie, her verse on “Polygon Delusions” was a particular standout.
The biggest change from past records is not that the negativity is gone, but one of perspective. Much of Somersault Days is about what happens when you’ve moved past the bad times and yet the memories loom in the background ready to drag you back. You can move past the darkness, but you’ll still remember it.
“Oh remember those somersault days
I could tough it all, not a prob, what a long phase
Remember those fall apart days”
Throughout the record, Sin7ven shows a growing maturity in tackling life’s problems. “Nothing Bothers Me” shows his attempts to cope by choosing to not let anything bother him at all in the first place. “And although I’ll be poor in this darn economy/Nothing bothers me, nothing bothers me, probably.” In the face of difficult circumstances, he chooses to not let them phase him, yet he can’t help but show his own doubt with that final “probably.”
The rest of the record shows this is nothing more than bravado, but a little bravado can go a long way when the alternative is succumbing to the worst of your own vices.
You can find me over on Twitter and Bsky @Lunamoonblight. You can support Sin7ven and buy this album on bandcamp.
