Best of Month: AotY #8: CLIFFDIVER's "Exercise Your Demons" via SideOneDummy

 


Most albums, especially those in this genre and the ones orbiting around it, are recounts of despair and the author’s attempts to pull themselves out of it. Very little of those records truly convey what the journey itself looks like quite like CLIFFDIVER has on Exercise Your Demons. To me this record is the true progression, we start high, go right to the low and get introspective until we’re high again. That to me made this record stand out the entire year to come. That and when no matter what I listen to my shuffles gave me one of these songs? It’s a guaranteed lock.


On a deeper level, I needed to hear that progression in my own life. If you look at any of these write ups you know the story and when I formally reviewed CLIFFDIVER earlier in the year not only did it all come together for me but I suddenly felt better about sadness that was over a decade old. Did I become perfect this year? No. But I’m still working it out, and I have a great playlist to do so.


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