A review of I Didn't Mean To Haunt You
A review of Quadeca's third studio album • 1-14-25

After releasing two rap projects, which got mixed reviews from critics, Quadeca took a full left turn and left us with I Didn't Mean To Haunt You. Easily one of my favorite albums ever made, it's one of the most ambitions and unique albums I have ever heard. An almost hour long folktronica glitchy art pop concept album, which sounds nearly nothing like anything he's made before. The concept of the album follows Quadeca's fictional journey after committing suicide, seeing the repercussions and outcome of his death through the eyes of a ghost stuck in a purgatory state. The title, "I Didn't Mean To Haunt You" refers to him literally haunting his family, specifically his mother, after his death.

The album begins with 'sorry4dying,' a song which literally apologizes for dying, as well as introducing the story of the album. The instrumental begins with a very atmosphere cloudy synth heavy melody, which keeps building up until a piano starts playing and Quadeca begins singing. The drums change around three times during this song, with all of them fitting their distinct parts in the song. Although Quadeca's character feels sorry to his family members and friends for leaving them, he initially tends not to regret it but instead holds a strong feeling of loneliness.

"I left my body lyin' on the door mat
Turned away, decided not to go back"

The song ends with the instrumentation from the beginning of the song repeating, seemingly forming a loop, although this time a strong bass synth plays in the background, possibly hinting at the worsening purgatory he has put himself in, ironically haunting him more than his death has haunted others.

The next track, 'tell me a joke,' continues introducing the story by comparing himself to a joke. This track continues the atmospheric synthy production with more of a maximalist feel.

"Funny the joke is on me
I tried hard not to miss it
Everything I couldn't be"

His character begins to regret ending his life, seeing that although he couldn't be what he believed was his potential, there are still some aspects he still misses and things he wished he could've done [spoken more in depth later]. The “missing” in this line obviously refers to him missing his life and getting out of the afterlife, but in this song also has the context of missing a joke.

The third track, 'don't mind me,' shows Quadeca watching his mother dealing with his death. She mourns through old pictures and belongings to try to hold onto whats left. This song, although less maximalist than the other tracks before, leaves space to really feel and see what Quadeca is going through. You can really see him grieving and having a strong desire to interact with the people around him even if you can't physically.

"You point to the sky
If only you knew, I'm so much closer"

The fourth track, 'picking up hands,' means alot to me. This track has some of the most beautiful singing on the entire album and the calm yet depressing production fits the lyrics in a way that makes this some of the most vulnerable work from Quadeca. This song has a similar theme to 'don't mind me,' where he visits his childhood home only to witness the repercussions of his suicide. This causes him to reflect on past childhood memories and the reality of his situation. This album has alot of themes just like this, reflecting on his life when he was younger. The song itself talks about being born, which is why it gives imagery to such, talking about picking up his hands. I see the often messages about being born to also signify Quadeca's urge to be born again, to leave his purgatory state and move on in a different life.

The next track, 'born yesterday,' is my absolute favorite song ever. This song means the world to me. Nothing is even close to this track, and the production, lyrics, structure, singing, creates an entire atmosphere like no other. Theres almost no way to properly start talking about this song, as nearly everything to do with this song is perfect. The beautifully done "For No One" The Beatles sample is so well done even lyric wise, that it fits the song so well. The insanely catchy and well sung chorus of the album is so powerful, where he's talking to his mother and seeing that, although she could make herself believe and act like she is fine, she will never be the same after the passing of her son. You can feel the heartbreak and emotional tension built up until this point and it culminates perfectly. The experimental glitchy production on this track is genuinely phenomenal and I can never get tired of it. The last third of the track is just INSANE. His singing while the track builds up during this point is something I genuinely marvel at. All biases of being my favorite song aside, this track is genuinely one of the best tracks from both Quadeca and anyone else, both conceptually, lyrically, or sonically.

There is no lyrics I can showcase, the entire lyrics of the song is enough.

Track 6, 'the memories we lost in translation,' is purely an interlude but is genuinely beautiful. With nearly no completely audible lyrics, the production feels like a perfect track to play right after a song like Born Yesterday. The sequencing reminds me of Kid A by Radiohead, with one of the greatest tracks both by Radiohead and anyone [How To Disappear Completely] plays, and right after we get an instrumental ambient track like Treefingers. A track with such insane emotional tension and build up to transition to an ambient atmospheric instrumental track is one of my favorite things an artist can do when they, rarely do it.

The next track, 'house settling,' easily has the best done narrative in the entire album. In this song, Quadeca feels completely loneliness and decides that he must poison his loved ones in order for them to join him. He tries this through an oven putting out Carbon Monoxide and this is spoken in more detail through Danny Brown's amazing verse, where he raps from the point of view of the OVEN!! Insane stuff. The production is one of the craziest yet, building up with distorted glitchy static production that culminates in Danny Brown's feature verse. The outro is a dark ambient one, and it is slow but for a good reason, letting you give thought to what you've just heard before the next track begins.

The eighth track, 'knots,' is easily the craziest and most unique song yet. This song has some of the most distorted industrial production, which sounds like a full-blown panic attack. Here, he talks about how small issues can over time add up and create "knots," that can't be undone. He continues the storyline from house settling with the line "[...] had to turn the oven off" Although this line is up for interpretation, it likely hints at Quadeca regretting the decision to poison his family members and decided to undo what he was doing, turning the oven off. My personal favorite part of this song is the part at 1:47, where the line 'I'm an open book in a closed casket' repeats. The production on that part is genuinely insane, and I love the distorted guitar that plays during that part. Before the song fully ends, a short spoken word is played, similar to another that played in 'picking up hands.'

"You took out that film too soon
There was light bleeding in the red room
I'll do anything but stand in front of the projector
I'd watch it all again"

The spoken word transitions into 'fantasyworld,' the most beautiful track on this album if not for born yestarday existing. Unlike all the other tracks on the album, this song takes place before he commited suicide, hinted by the spoken word in 'knots.' Here, Quadeca's character finds comfort in a better place he would eventually reach when he didn't exist anymore, a 'fantasyworld.' He does this by driving past the mountains of change rather than trying to climb them. The song begins with a poem that Quadeca wrote as he tried to process these emotions, while the piano melody was from a song he used to play as a child. The song builds up for 2-3 minutes, while the added instruments and piano get gradually stronger sonically. This all culminates in likely the most gorgeous part of the entire album in an explosive crescendo that is genuinely perfect. The last 3 minutes of the track are both effectively terrifying and comforting, and serves as time to recover from such a maximalist moment.

The penultimate track, 'fractions of infinity,' sees Quadeca as he wonders about giving into the idea of God and becoming nothingness. He realises that clinging onto the memories of and connection to the living world will not only cause more pain internally but also externally, especially to his Mother. He varies his idea of the void from a vast emptiness to a united whole (Heaven), while also questioning how God might punish him for his sins. Essentially, he considers conceding to the light; removing himself from the in-between world for a possible acceptance into divinity. This track is very beautiful, and the addition of Kanye West's own Sunday Service Choir is an amazing choice. It's definitively one of the calmer tracks, and gives more of an indie folk feel.

"Those words don't do you justice"

The album closes out with 'cassini's division,' a highly experimental and ethereal spoken word outro. While this song isn't as strong on its own, with the context of the album serves as a great closer. The title of the track is named after The Cassini Division, a region between two of Saturn's rings. From Earth, it appears as a thin black gap in the rings. These rings represent a static that is inbetween, referencing the final moments of Quadeca's ghost character dissolving into nothing but static between the world of the living and the afterlife. This song is honestly very terrifying, and the writing is very dark. You can tell Quadeca is not ready to go, even if he convinces himself he could. After the instrumental and spoken word ends, you hear footsteps and distant crying from Quadeca, this could be that the character's time in the afterlife is now running out and is not ready to accept his fate yet. Desperate to find a way out by running from being swallowed away, but ends up fading into the disintegrated and evaporating static, disposing the character's being and conscience all away. The static section that lasts for three minutes represents the absorption and transition into the static after being finally moved on from the mourning of his living peers.

This album feels like more of an experience than a musical project, and accompanied with its beautifully done visual film on YouTube, it's easily one of my favorite albums ever made. The crazy part about this is, Quadeca isn't even close to being done. His next album 'Vanisher' is planned to be released approximately this year, and according to Quadeca, is his best work yet. True or not, I'm excited for whatever he can work on in the future and I'm sure it will be amazing nonetheless.

Oh also this album is a 10/10