Theft World - Lip Critic
- Ed Dyer
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
“I’ve got tight ass pants, and some big ass shoes // I was born of greed, I can birth it too”
Lip Critic. Perhaps the most underrated band of the decade. A hidden gem whose whacky, abrasive sound emerges from the confines of a little-known suburban town called New York City. Their new album Theft World comes two years after the release of their genre-bending masterpiece, Hex Dealer - one of my favourite albums of all time. There's something about their melting pot of ingredients, which have absolutely no business whatsoever of being associated with each other, that somehow blends into one of the most unique and delicious concoctions alternative music can serve. Not many bands cite influences from Tyler, The Creator, Korn, and Skrillex.
The Mic's Ed Dyer reports on Lip Critic's latest release, fuelled with chaos, conspiracy and, most importantly, theft.
Picture this: you’re the victim of identity fraud and someone is stealing your banking information. What do you do?
Some people would try to make sure their finances are secure. They’re wrong. This is New York. Some kind of… Theft World, of sorts. That money is gone. The correct response is to make an experimental hip-hop album. That’s what Lip Critic did.
With an extremely high bar set by their previous album, Theft World is faced with a mountainous task of having to live up to one of the most well-executed projects of the 2020s. However, amongst frequent comparisons with other experimental electronic bands such as Death Grips, YHWH Nailgun and Mandy, Indiana, Lip Critic continue to set themselves apart in this album, retaining one of the most original sounds out there with this new release.
Not aiming to disguise the importance of finances, the opening segment of the album includes a song entitled "Jackpot", which is then juxtaposed by "Debt Forest". Jackpot is a great track. In the most positive way possible, it sounds like the music equivalent of watching a Family Guy clip over Subway Surfers gameplay in 3x speed, whilst necking a can of Monster Energy. There is so much going on throughout the whole track until the mellow bridge brings you back down to Earth, and into Debt Forest. The ‘life full of debt for when I’m done.’ This works really well as a tone-setter for the album. The two tracks bounce off each other in a way which aptly embodies the polarising sounds Lip Critic can operate.
"Talon" is a much more emotionally-driven track. The increasing involvement of screamed lyrics comes across in a way that suggests a heightened sense of crisis since Debt Forest. The two-drummer line-up of the band works extremely well with the synths here, which fits the dynamic sense of chaos through this song.
Broken up by "Charity Dinner", and "Drumming With Izzy", the album pulls you back into the (theft) world of layers upon layers of sounds across the back half of the album. The last five tracks act like a projectile launch into the essence of Lip Critic’s sound. The chaotic meshing of hardcore/hip-hop verses blends into some sort of spiritual ascension - barring the line in "Shoplifting" where Bret Kaser explicitly states that God told him that he is not going to heaven after he had only just turned eleven. Some musicians in the hip-hop space claim to have killed people; dabbled in Class A drugs, perhaps. As an upstanding citizen myself, I feel much safer learning of the exploits of a Gatorade heist.
"Legs in a Snare" is my personal favourite on the album. This track has something I think a lot of the others are missing, which is a drop into a pummelling chorus - and this song has the build-up, the tension, and the immense fury in Kaser’s vocals at the summit. I think a lot of tracks on this album set themselves up for something like this. Kaser screaming seemingly-nonsensical lyrics over some of the most meticulously-crafted, yet disorderly sampling will always be what makes Lip Critic one of the best bands to come out of the experimental New York scene. This song hits you like a freight train. This is definitely the peak of the album in terms of quality, but also in terms of energy.
But if a freight train hits you, nothing returns to normal after the incident - you’ve just been hit by a freight train! It’s a miracle you’re still alive! But luckily you are, this means you get to hear "Yard Sale (230 Take)", and the impact of the collision is still felt right from the outset of this song. I’m not sure what was wrong with the first 229 takes, but this seems like a good one to settle on. Kaser humbly awards himself a place in the ‘yard sale hall of fame,’ which hopefully has allowed him to escape the debt forest he found himself in. This is a blitz of rapid lyrics and blistering drumming, before being calmed down in the closing track.
Does this live up to Hex Dealer? No, nothing does. But it has a good go at it. This feels more restrained and controlled than Hex Dealer. The vision they saw for this album was astutely executed, and everything culminates into a project which feels very complete. Theft World has a sense of maturity which their previous album doesn’t match, but I think the freedom this brought was a net-positive and benefits their sound slightly more. Nonetheless, this album is another solid release that demonstrates versatility in Lip Critic’s sound and…
“when it stops… I still crave the feeling”
Theft World released on May 1, 2026 and is available to stream here.
Ed Dyer
Edited by Isabelle Tu
Photos courtesy of Lip Critic
Comments