Creating a sophomore record can be a lot of pressure for any artist, let alone following an album that was released on a major label. After his 2019 single Fast, which was certified platinum, thanks to going viral on TikTok, Los Angeles based rapper/singer/songwriter Sueco released his debut album prophetically titled It Was Fun While It Lasted on Atlantic Records back in 2022. Now independent and completely free from creative restraints, he recently released his second LP Attempted Lover on July 19th. 

Attempted Lover is a sprawling, genre-bending 12 songs that speak about searching for love, and all of the complexity that comes with it. Part rapper, part pop-punk rockstar and part modern crooner, Sueco has never really been able to be put in a box, and that remains true on this record. Wreck starts as almost a sea shanty, but then slowly swells, adding piano and electric guitar as he desperately screams “Fuck growing old/ I’ll be young till the day I die/ Cause no one/ makes it out alive.” in his best Dashboard Confessional impression.

Outta My Head is the latest single off Attempted Lover for obvious reasons.  Arguably the catchiest song on the record, I kept waiting for MGK to show up on this rap sing-along. The chorus is just infectious as hell. Somebody Else is more traditional post hardcore, with its gunfire-like drums & guitar licks standing out. Things get darker on Bathroom Floor, as the voice modulation sounds more Freddy Krueger, than Chris Carraba, on this nu-metal banger. 

While coloring outside the lines works pretty well for Sueco, there are times when Attempted Lover raises an eyebrow. The EDM sounding Anastasia is one of those times. Not that it’s a bad song, because it’s definitely interesting, it just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the record sonically.  Even though every song is uniquely different, the album still has a cohesive thread throughout, which just seems to be missing on Anastasia. Fortunately things get back on track with Wanna Feel Something, with its haunting keys that are reminiscent of the opening of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It’s choices like this that give validation to Sueco’s creativity on Attempted Lover. When it works, it works really well.  

The production, while having been done by a variety of producers, is really solid throughout Attempted Lover. They’ve all managed to make a pretty cohesive record, which given the wide range of genres over the 12 songs, is pretty impressive. The second half of the album continues the trend of changing tempos and styles from one song to the next, to keep things interesting and the listener wondering what’s coming next. Attempted Lover closes with my favorite song on the record, Mulholland Drive, a stripped down ballad that could easily be mistaken for The Early November, in the best way possible. I am a sucker for any acoustic song with strings that pack such an emotional punch to the gut like Mulholland Drive. “Sometimes I wanna die young with you in my arms/ The last word off my tongue “I’ll always love you ‘til my lips turn blue”/ Would you do the same,too?/ I’d do that for your” 

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too familiar with Sueco before hearing this record. Even though I’m probably much older than his target audience, after listening to Attempted Lover, I’m a big fan. One of the things I love about this generation of artists is the wide variety of influences they draw from. As the music industry moves further away from the old days of record labels trying to mold artists to fit a certain sound, hopefully we will continue to hear visionaries like Sueco. Artists who aren’t afraid to blend genres and take chances, in creating their own beautiful art.  

Rating: 7.8/10

Track List

1: Wreck

2: Outta My Head

3: Somebody Else

4: Bathroom Floor

5: Anastasia 

6: Wanna Feel Something 

7: 452Am

8: Bad Idea

9: Never Even Left

10: Mouthful of Spiders

11: Drama Queen

12: Mulholland Drive

reviewed by Jeremy Schmidt