Death Grips Present: The I.L.Y.'s NIN & The Strokes-indebted "I've always been good at true love" Album (Thirdworlds Download)
Death Grips have somehow already managed to "break up" via a napkin and "reform" in a matter of months, signed an Epic Records deal and purposely leaked private emails to get dropped, posed for a mysterious backstage picture alongside Robert Pattinson & Beyoncé (above), recruited Björk to contribute vocals to Disc 1 of their "comeback" album, The Powers That B, were surprisingly name-dropped on Rachael Ray by comedian Fred Armisen, bailed on a whole string of scheduled shows Axl Rose style, and licensed "You Might Think He Loves You for You Money But I Know What He Really Loves You for and It's Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" for an Adidas Predator sneaker commercial... so, it would make sense that the newly-reformed Death Grips would need something of a fresh start; long-speculated Death Grips-affiliated Twitter handle @bbpoltergiest shared a cryptic zipfile link to a 9-track album called I've always been good at true love credited to The I.L.Y.'s. The most popular Reddit user-speculated theory is that The I.L.Y.'s "are a band featuring Death Grips' Zach Hill on vocals, and production from Andy Morin [Flatlander], along with Tera Melos' Nick Reinhardt on guitar," as Consequence of Sound reported upon the surprise album's Thursday morning release.
While their involvement has yet to be 100% confirmed, overzealous fans have noted I've always been good at true love's striking similarities to drummer Zach Hill's pre-Death Grips "solo" work with Hella and MC Ride's heavily speculated vocal contribution to album closer, "All She Does Is Kill Sh*t." It has been additionally noted that album opener "The Sickest F*ck of Them All" bears resemblance to a shirt worn in Death Grips' "I've Seen Footage" (2012) music video, as well as being the tentative title to Hill's seemingly long-aborted Death Grips-soundtracked film; leading many fans to believe that The I.L.Y.'s are in fact Death Grips, some sort of thinly-veiled side-project, perhaps an opener for their upcoming "comeback" US Tour, or possibly even Thirdworlds Records' latest mysterious signee. Regardless of The I.L.Y.'s affiliation with Death Grips (or lack thereof), I've always been good at true love is an intriguing listen, which almost instantly reminded me of a NIN-indebted Industrial Rock meets early 2000's The Strokes-leaning Indie/Garage Rock sound peppered with their own unique blend of Experimental Aggro-Rap, and it's definitely worth firing up a FREE download.