Quadeca’s newest album, “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You,” is a thrilling experience, but it is certainly not for casual listeners. This eerie indie/hip-hop/R&B album tells the story of a ghost who has died and is now wandering through Purgatory regretting his past decisions. This may sound like a very strange concept, but to people who enjoy music and listen with the intent to analyze the art, it will be worth the listen.

Quadeca started out as a YouTube rapper, dropping diss tracks and mediocre rap songs at first, but things began to change after he released his first studio album, “Voice Memos.” Although this album wasn’t amazing, it provided a huge step forward for Quadeca. He began to find out what kind of music he enjoys making, instead of worrying about views and streams. A couple years after the release of “Voice Memos,” he released his second studio album, “From Me to You.” This album was a huge step forward for Quadeca. Over the course of making this album, he learned more about self-producing and started messing around with his own sounds and ideas. This was crucial in the process of making his latest album, “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You.” Quadeca says via twitter that the entire album was produced, mixed, recorded, and written by himself.

“I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You” is leagues above anything else Quadeca has released. This album features a full album movie to go with it and stretches across a plethora of instruments and unique sounds. “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You” has a fully fleshed-out storyline that you will have to listen closely to understand. This album includes 11 songs that add up to an album length just shy of one hour.

This album has a strong theme of death, but not in a cheesy Halloween way. This album is a sad and powerful project from the perspective of a ghost stuck in Purgatory, haunting his mom, who is pretending that she is fine even though the ghost can clearly see her pain. The lyrics are vivid and strong with lines like “It’s that room, it’s the wall, it’s the poster and all, and the lamp still swingin’ its chord. It’s the shadowy weight and the footsteps I take, made a mark through the dust on the floor,” from the song “picking up hands.” These lines depict the ghost exploring his old room, and the dust symbolizes nobody has been in there for a long time. Another excerpt from the song “house settling” goes “Heard a creak, turning weak, turn the heat up some more. It was spreading you said, ‘It’s house settling,’” which is an example of the ghost trying to let his mom know that he is still there, but she dismisses it as a creak in the floor, the house settling.

Overall, the strongest tracks on this album are “sorry4dying” a song about his regret and apologizing to his mom and exploring a new world (Purgatory). The loose strings at the beginning of this song express this feeling of exploring a new world, then transition to simple piano notes that force you to focus on the lyrics. Another track that makes this album so beautiful is “born yesterday.” The chorus of this song includes the line “I wasn’t born yesterday,” showing the ghost’s knowledge of his mother’s pain even though she is trying to hide it. 

Finally, the song “fantasyworld” appears later in the album but is meant to be a sort of prologue. It describes the ghosts feeling of loneliness in life and wanting to disappear to a place over the mountains, a fantasy world. The track starts off very simple, with sad piano notes and the weak voice of Quadeca barely getting his lyrics out. It eventually builds to a huge climax with booming drums and a much more enthusiastic voice yelling out the final verse, then transitions to a once again calm ending with the words, “That’s a fantasy world, that’s where I wanna live.”

One of the weaker tracks of this album would be “cassini’s division.” This song is a crucial part of the story, but is over eight minutes long. The track features Thor Harris, an ex-Swans member, and is about accepting the ghost’s new fate. But if this were on your playlist, it would easily be skipped. The song has about two minutes of just static, and very few lyrics.

“I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You” is in a genre of its own, and practically incomparable to any other projects even remotely similar. Overall, I would rate this album a 10/10 if you plan to listen closely and take in everything this project has to offer. If you were to just throw a few of these songs in a playlist and listen to them just every once and a while though, I would rate this album a 6/10.