The independent Indie / Alternative artist Ratchet who’s based in the Netherlands has unleashed a beast of an album into the world. The album- Closing The Door has 18 songs that amount to about an hour’s worth of material! Do you know how rare it is in this day and age to find such songs of quality in such great numbers and that too all in one album? I have so many questions about how long it took to write and record them and what inspired him. The tracks are detailed to a dot. It is most definitely a journey as move from one song to another.
The Stage Is Set by Ratchet
We have the perfect start to the theatre that is this album with The Stage Is Set. At first, we hear the wind and we almost feel Him approach even before we hear him. The track is a melodic rap meets monologue of sorts. I must say he oozes with the same finesse and energy that Beyonce usually does in her albums. Except his music is a lot more contemporary and pop than The Queen B. While this sets the tone, the songs that follow have you slowly sink deeper and deeper into the world that our main man is setting up here.
Stalker
Ratchet has a voice that really represents the generation, the generation being- Zillennials and Gen Z’s. These generations have a tendency to go down the witty yet dark path. So when we start off mild and soft, by the time we hit Stalker, the tone gets a lot more subtle and experimental. An observation is that he really likes to play with mood and atmosphere. This means he knows exactly how and where to introduce new sounds, be they instrumentals or atmospheric/ ambience sounds. Another World is a track that sticks out as well. The track lasts for a minute and a half and within this trap, he poetically puts together a set of words that entices you!
Our Last Night
The album ends with Our Last Night and what a pure and wholesome song this one is. The track starts off with a Ukulele and he strums away the whirlwind of emotions that he picked up from the very floor of our souls with his hurricane of an album. Don’t get me wrong, the lyrics are as existential as the rest of them but this number has a settling energy to it. Whereas the rest of the album has more of a “Shake the foundation of your thought process.” kind of energy. This entire album would be perfect in Call Me By Your Name. The sensibilities within both the tracks and the film are very similar. Now, if this isn’t enough for you to realize that this is quality music, you can explore this by yourself. You can do this by clicking on the links attached above and giving Ratchet a little bit more love that he deserves.