How old were you when you first listened to I'mdifficult's eponymous album? This new recording certainly asks the question: after releasing 25 in 2021, almost three years have passed and the diary of these young musicians – all four were born in 1995, known as the year of grace – continues with the tracks "28 (What You Owe)" or "Giving Me Up", which looks back at their/yours seventeenth year.
“Every album represents an era: we’re always exploring what we are becoming and reflecting where we are in life. Every time we make an album about growing up, we assume it’s gonna be the last time we talk about it, but then we start again!” Vocalist and synth bass player Hsuan (a.k.a. dotzio) told me.
“I feel it is a never-ending process. When I was a kid, I thought when you are 25, you know who you will become, personality-wise it is not going to change a lot and when you’re over 25, and eventually you realize it isn’t true at all, things are still moving.” “It’s even more chaotic!” emphasizes Ernest (凌元耕), the male vocalist and pianist of the band.
I'mdifficult just returned from their first 18-day overseas tour, photo taken in Tokyo
‘Moonlight’, the album’s highlight, revisits the story of Peter Pan and his troupe of "sleepless pirate kids all lost in Neverland", which we would all like to get on board with – but hasn't the register been lost between the moonbeams? And here we are, grown up, with our eyes on childhood, and the intermixing in I'mdifficult's song of organic and synthetic sounds, pianos and keyboards, Ernest's emotionally clear vocals and the vocoder spectrum of Hsuan's vocal line leaves us standing on the border between two times.
The intensity of the past that vibrates in our ears in ‘Last Summer’ is the little guitar ritornello that slips in between the layers of the four keyboards, a memory that will not leave our brains – just like a pop melody from an I'mdifficult’s song that you can't resist humming after listening to.
The complex nature of I'mdifficult's music enables us to remember a track that made us remember a part of our lives unless it is the other way around. How old were you when you listened to it? Younger than you think, pirate kid!
written by Aurelien ROSSANINO
*I'mdifficult's album tease showcase at Yuchen Recording Studio
*I'mdifficult's album tease showcase at Yuchen Recording Studio
