A Reflection on Jeshi's Exhilarating Sophomore Album: 'Airbag Woke Me Up'

With his second album, Jeshi continues to prove his skill in merging meaningful songwriting and creating listenable bangers. Standing out in the build up, singles ‘DISCONNECT!’ with Fredwave, Louis Culture and J. Caesar, and ‘SAINT OR SINNER’ with Sainte, laid down a high-octane marker for what we could expect from the upcoming project. 

Wasting no time, ‘BAD PARTS ARE MY FAVOURITE’ steps straight into the alternative rap lane Jeshi has carved for himself. It felt as though he first indicated into this lane with 2020 EP Bad Taste, then concretised his place with highly-acclaimed debut album, Universal Credit. Now, with the ever difficult second album ahead of him, Jeshi looked to the past for inspiration. 

Back in December 2016, Jeshi fell asleep whilst driving home (sober) from a party at 5am, and he crashed into a car park, only to be woken up by the airbag exploding in his face. Whereas his debut album felt like he was looking externally, critiquing and celebrating the world around him, through drawing from this traumatic experience, Jeshi looks inwards. 

The vocal chops of ‘SCUMBAG’ take over next. Jeshi’s high pitched vocals discuss feeling like ‘The king of a pile of shit’, in a self-deprecatingly relatable manner. Knocking drums carry the track’s energy, before giving way to previously released ‘HURRICANE’ with LEILAH. Again, utilising pitched up vocal tones (a running theme), Jeshi here employs them for a delectably vibrant chorus. 

Through ‘ALONE TONIGHT’, ‘DEERS IN THE ROAD’, and particularly ‘LOVE SONGS’, Jeshi reflects, and offers some of his most vulnerable lyricism to date. It felt as though much of Jeshi’s debut album provoked fire and anger, as he excellently dissected the wrongdoings of the leaders of the country (among other things). Now that he looks internally, Jeshi reaches a new place of clarity, which in turn is transferred to the listener. Neither is better or worse, in fact both the external and internal aspects of Jeshi’s two albums feels totally essential. Universal Credit and Airbag Woke Me Up are two sides of the same coin.

On the back end, chaos is wholeheartedly embraced as high energy delivery powers through thoughtful lyrics. Jeshi’s punkish energy always remains, even when introspecting, and when joined by feature artists such as Elijah Waters, Fredwave and Louis Culture, those qualities are only accentuated. 

This album is a shining example of unmoderated creativity being allowed to scream and shout. Totally unapologetically, Jeshi has dropped a strong contender in album of the year lists, and it’s only January. But far more importantly, Jeshi has proved himself an artist capable of going both ways. He can provide exquisite commentary on his surroundings, as well as dissecting his innermost demons, and without fail he makes it sound excellent.