Confessions From “Blanket” – The 2 Year Anniversary
Design by Katie Lew
By Katie Lew
On November 3, 2023, Kevin Abstract’s fourth studio album Blanket was released, featuring 13 tracks. 2 years after its release, Kevin Abstract’s music career has greatly shifted. The popular hip-hop group Brockhampton he was a part of disbanded in 2022, a year before Blanket’s release, and this year Kevin Abstract has started a new musical duo with Dominic Fike called Geezer. They first released music under this new group alongside Kevin Abstract’s fifth studio album, Blush, that came out earlier this year. Every one of his albums has been drastically different, and Blush specifically heavily relies on the collaborators’ influences and voices. He feels a bit overshadowed in it. There is only one track that is performed solo by Kevin Abstract, and it’s an interlude. But revisiting Blanket, though, feels like his voice and a remembrance of who Kevin Abstract is as a solo artist.
Blanket became the soundtrack to my life last year. “What Should I Do” always stood out with its minion-like background vocals, cheery beat, and contrasting vulgar lyrics. However, listening to how deeply it weaves into the entire narrative of Blanket, it’s really beautiful. I used to always laugh at the chorus of “What Should I Do” with my friends- “Don’t touch me, it turns me on/ frizzy hair, naked hit the bong.” Now looking back at it from its greater context, the lyrics beautifully show how Kevin Abstract builds on his fear. Blanket is a testament to young love, fear, confessions, and confrontation of self. Throughout the album, Kevin Abstract battles with romantic feelings for a friend that deeply scare him. Voyager is a perfect example of this internal monologue with “You know I wanna hang out/ sleep over with you/ and every summer with you has been a dream/ and every moment with you has been a dream/I cannot fight it/ agent of change and I prayed it would stick.” “Heights, spiders, and the dark” directly calls this love something to be scared of, along with other phobias, with “My friend and my muse/ you make me so confused, the things that I would do to keep all of you.” You can feel his anxiety and denial grow and change with his adolescence.
I had never watched the “Blanket” music video. It accompanies the lead single but is the only visualizer for the whole album. It shows Kevin Abstract spiraling and taking care of his baby doll, awaiting an apocalyptic meteor to strike Earth, which “Lucky Edwards” is to blame for. He is accompanied by three monster friends who comfort and play around him as he plans what he should do. In the end, he gets in his truck and drives off into the horizon as he drives by four kids in a field on VR sets. This was a complete contrast to the themes of Blanket. Blanket, as an album, discusses the fears of love, growing up, and naivety. “Blanket” as a song and music video seems like a commentary on society, reliance on digital media, and isolation.
There are hints of Kevin Abstract’s future influences and collaborations throughout this album. It’s a blend of various genres, where “Mr. Edwards” is very angsty and emo, “Blanket” is completely rock, and “Running Out” shifts into indie pop. Each song never sounds the same as the last. “Madonna” and “Running Out” give great insight into what Kevin Abstract’s future works start to look like. Geezer and Blush sound similar to these two tracks. The closing track “My Friend” ft Kara Jackson and MJ Lenderman is a very interesting closing to the album. With each musical collaboration Kevin Abstract has, he greatly adopts the style of his partners. “My Friend” completely shifts into MJ Lenderman’s tone yet keeps the theme of Blanket in the lyrics “Warm sheets for only us to see/ the way I think about you, my friend/ no, you’ll never understand.”
Two years since its release, Blanket still stands as one of Kevin Abstract’s most intimate and revealing works, a project he has even exclaimed is one of his favorites. He captures a version of himself afraid to confront desire and self-discovery. Revisiting the album now, especially in the wake of Blush’s recent release and the emergence of Geezer, Blanket is a reminder of Kevin Abstract at his most personal and uncompromised. Its genre-blurring sound and raw confession mapping out a turning point in his creative evolution. As Kevin Abstract continues to reinvent himself, Blanket remains a personal favorite and timeless album as a blueprint for everything he is becoming.