REVIEW: Stinkus – ‘I love you, trackstar’
Every once in a while, an album barrels out of nowhere with the kind of wide-eyed, heart-on-fire energy that reminds you why indie music is exciting in the first place. ‘I love you, trackstar’, the new full-length from LA producer-turned-chaos-poet Stinkus, is exactly that record. It’s loud, tender, unhinged, and completely irresistible.
Stinkus (the delightfully rogue moniker of writer/producer Tyler Thompson) didn’t walk into a glossy studio to make this thing. He ran into the woods. Literally. Two weeks alone in a cabin in rural Michigan, armed with his gear, his brain on overdrive, and zero rules, and you can feel that freedom in every minute of this album. The songs vibrate with urgency, as if he pressed record the second an idea punched him in the chest.
The result? A gloriously unpredictable mix of scrappy indie-rock, jittery folk-punk tenderness, and raw bedroom-pop confessions that feel like they were caught mid-meltdown. You hear echoes of Alex G’s eccentric charm, Pinegrove’s emotional candour, and MJ Lenderman’s crooked swagger. Each track snaps with personality, veering from whisper-quiet confessionals to full-bodied, distortion-drenched catharsis.
This is an artist whose mind never stays still, and instead of smoothing that out, he turns it into fuel. The mood swings, the emotional pivots, and the jump-cuts between styles are not accidents. They’re the DNA of the project. And because the entire album was made in the same room, on the same gear, in the same feverish headspace, all that glorious chaos feels strangely unified, like a collage held together by heart.
What shines most is the joy. You can hear how much fun he’s having. There’s a playfulness in the production choices, a fearlessness in the vulnerability, and a pulse running through these songs that says: “this is exactly who I am right now”.
‘I love you, trackstar’ is a vibrant, messy, deeply human record made by someone finally giving himself permission to go all in. And honestly? It’s thrilling to witness.