“I’m biodegradable. I’m an energy angel.”
photo by @qclick22
Stars as a design element and theme in music are a thing right now. Caribou’s forthcoming album has twinkling stars on the cover, and Chance The Rapper’s upcoming album is called Star Line. Toro Y Moi’s newest album has strong references to the sky and astrology. There’s a universal quality to it: every genre, every person, every possibility. “I’m biodegradable. I’m an energy angel.” These lyrics from ‘HOV,’ the defining track of Toro Y Moi’s 8th studio record Hole Erth, perfectly describe Toro Y Moi, a.k.a Chaz Bear.
It’s as if the stars represent every influence he can gather: gorpcore, indie rock, rap, technology, etc. Each one being sucked into a black hole, that hole, or energy source, being Toro Y Moi. What he returns is his, by far, his most lyrically captivating music.
Chaz Bear seems to find the universe's overwhelming sense of possibilities astonishing. Everyone could be famous. Everyone has a story. Some stars fall. Some shine brighter. Love can be magic. Love can burn. The universe is unpredictable, but we’re meant to experience all of it.
From ‘CD-R,’ “Blackberry days, I would talk to anyone
I was always late, I could never respond
Started getting paid, now they asking me for refunds
Lеarning how to wait ‘til it all makes cents
Halos surround the moon
The sun revolves around it, the time.”
The humility and grandeur are awesome. A sense of the unknown is grounded with immense appreciation. It’s a celebration of what it means to be human: to know nothing at all and still be connected to it all. It’s not knowledge that makes us perfect. It’s love and understanding—not understanding because you know, understanding because you accept.
Up to this point, we’ve seen Toro Y Moi create genres, blend genres, and constantly genre-hop. And to a surprisingly authentic degree. After his What For? album he suffered a car crash. He then changed his name, from Chaz Bundick to Chaz Bear, and he stopped wearing his trademark glasses. His music began to get slightly darker and he started featuring artists more prominently on his albums. He’s never stopped evolving in radical ways since then. But none of his albums have felt as dark or as inspired as this one.
On Hole Erth, he’s unleashed his Indie Rock, or alternative, side, his true roots in music. Hearing Chaz ditch the laid-back vibe and lean into angst and emo in his voice and music is my favorite version of him. See ‘Tuesday’ or ‘Reseda’ on Hole Erth. For a voice that can often sound stretched too thin or ready to crack if it pushes one more note, Chaz has found his voice and songwriting in alternative energy. I’ve often thought Toro Y Moi has never broken through to the mainstream because of his lack of singing ability and vocal prowess. Now that he’s tapped into alt-rock, he’s written the best songs of his career.
The hook for Tuesday is arguably the greatest he’s ever written. It’s incredibly catchy, like a well-crafted pop song, but also enigmatic. “I’ve been up since Tuesday, and I haven’t even had a chance to say.” He never tells us exactly what.
The same goes for the hooks on ‘Heaven,’ which eventually samples the skittering lyrics from Broken Social Scene’s most famous song, ‘Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,’ “Park that car. Drop that phone. Sleep on the floor. Dream about me.”
The bulk of Toro’s past lyrics (Mahal or Sandhills) have been deathly straightforward, at times dull, but he’s gone somewhere dark and strange on this album to create his most poignant songwriting. Again, from ‘Heaven,’ "Once in a lifetime, it’s radical. Sparks fly. Irrational. Watch it all burn to the floor. Irrational. Irrational.”
And then there's the trap beats on Hole Erth…and the rapping. I’m not a fan of Toro’s Travis Scott impersonations (‘Walking In The Rain,’ ‘Off Road’), but he gets a pass because he featured on Scott’s debut. And he’s been dabbling with his own hip-hop and rap sounds since 2015’s Samantha mixtape. The beats are fire. I like ‘CD-R,’ but Chaz acting like a tough guy is not believable.
But he perfectly combines the rap and indie worlds in more of a producer role on ‘Undercurrent.’ His pairing of Don Toliver and Porches is genius, one of the coolest, unexpected collaborations I can think of. Porches’ tone of longing complements Toliver’s menacing undertone to create the sense of a ticking time bomb. It’s exciting from start to finish and a collaboration only a great genre-blending artist like Toro or someone like Blood Orange, a past collaborator, could pull off.
Chaz is far from the first to combine hip-hop and alternative sounds. Prominent names like Kenny Mason, Teezo Touchdown, and Jean Dawson have found success with that formula in recent years. Lil Yachty did it on his last album. Mason’s 2020 track ‘U in a gang // Exxon’ is a great reference for the Hole Erth approach.
At a lower level, you have bands like Danger Incorporated, Paris Texas, MONEYPHONE, and glaive, the artist featured on Hole Erth’s closing track, ‘Starlink.’ I’m not saying Chaz is riding a wave, but it’s clear where his inspiration has come from. Part of what makes Chaz’s approach authentic is the nods to Indie legends by sampling Broken Social Scene and featuring emo-king Ben Gibbard on the track, ‘Hollywood.’ Chaz cut his musical teeth in Indie Rock bands before diving into sampling and electronic music. He’s not new to this, but current trends have revived his first true love.
So, where does Hole Erth rank in Chaz’s discography? It’s his most daring album—the most explicit and feature-heavy. He’s eight albums in and still evolving. But more than anything, he’s returning to his musical roots. And that makes Hole Erth feel like his most honest and authentic album to date. We finally know who Toro Y Moi is. “He’s biodegradable. He’s an energy angel.”
He recycles and refines great music. He did it when he helped invent Chillwave with his debut, ‘Causers of This.’ And he did it when he interpolated LCD Soundsystem’s iconic lyrics, “Daft Punk is playing at my house,” by saying, “James Murphy is playing at my house,” on ‘Laws of the Universe.’
Hole Erth’s closing track ‘Starlink’ (internet reference) wraps up the album perfectly. It’s frenetic, like a rocket barreling through space toward a black hole. And before you know it, silence. It’s gone, just like the stars on the album cover. Like we’ll all be one day. Sucked into the unknown, taking all our influences with us, hoping they’ll matter in the next life.
Footnotes:
Hole Erth refers to Stewart Brand’s DIY periodical from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the central purpose of which was to empower people to be holistically self-sufficient. This album has strong references to the sky and astrology. There’s a universal quality to it: every genre, every person, every possibility.
“Things have gone in a more gorp-y direction. Humans are tapping into this more tribal, earthier aesthetic. The Whole Earth catalog is this encyclopedic, self-sustaining guide. With the album title alone, that’s something I wanted to spark as a conversation. We can be off the grid, and also be on the internet, and try out all of these different lifestyles at the same time.”
Chaz actually condemns private jets as evil and a major source of pollution on ‘Smoke,’ claiming VC’s have offered to fly him out to Ibiza to DJ private parties but Chaz has no interest stating he’s not a “people pleaser.”
The lyrics for ‘Heaven’ are incredible:
Don't let it go if you think you have it; don’t let it go; hold it with a passion. Smoke and mirrors got you looking at distractions, even though it’s got you hoping that it’s magic.”
The lyrics are never perfectly clear, but they’re perfectly singable. While this song could be about falling in love, it could also be about listening to your heart and following your dreams.
The video uses symbolism and surprising character choices to tell the story. Two children are dressed intentionally to represent different parts of Toro Y Moi.
The girl in red and white to match Toro’s jersey. The boy in boots "(watch the transition at 1:05 seconds from Toro’s boots to the boys) and in yellow to reference Toro’s hair and blue to match Toro’s socks.
The lyrics for Hollywood are also exceptional. Cryptic but classic, “I was stone rolling. I was role playing. I was wind blowing, nobody holding my hand.” Emo king Ben Gibbard chimes in, “Every star is bound to fall. And vanish into the sprawl. From a plane, they glitter on the ground. They’re hiding but are easily found.”
Chaz Bear seems to find the universe's overwhelming sense of possibilities astonishing. Everyone could be famous. Everyone has a story. Some stars fall. Some shine brighter. Love can be magic. Love can burn. The universe is unpredictable, but we’re meant to experience all of it.
From ‘CD-R,’ “Blackberry days, I would talk to anyone
I was always late, I could never respond
Started getting paid, now they asking me for refunds
Lеarning how to wait ‘til it all makes cents
Halos surround the moon
The sun revolves around it, the time.”
The humility and grandeur are awesome. The sense of the unknown is grounded with immense appreciation. It’s a celebration of what it means to be human: to know nothing at all and still be connected to it all. It’s not knowledge that makes us perfect. It’s love and understanding—not understanding because you know, understanding because you accept.