Yeah that's right, we're spending some time in the Bitch Club today

And it's good to be back. We could start the story of Tsubi Club by talking about Soren's previous project Biskwiq which is certainly worth giving a listen to, but i'd rather just start with Burbank House which was his explosive 2021 debut under his new moniker Tsubi Club. Moving past his former lo-fi beats roots, Burbank House shot out the gate sprinting with it's lyrics about... *checks notes* ...feeling stalled in your life and relationships and the disconnect that comes with wanting to do new things and meet new people while your anxiety screams at you to stay home. It was a wonderful introduction that let us know Soren had a lot to say, but just might take a while to find the words to say it.

Fast forward to 2026 and after a prolific 2 more singles under his belt (the latter even being a cover) and Soren finally has found that he had enough on his mind to finally drop his debut Trinket. True to the end of the last paragraph, it takes a little over 2 minutes into the album before we hear Soren's voice come front and center in the mix, in fact, Phil from Hercules (interestingly using voice actor Daniel Riordan's reference voice for the character instead of Danny DeVito's) has more lines of speech in the first two tracks than Soren. Opening tracks reclusive wizard leaves tower and You're serious, aren't you? are great tone setters for this album. Tower is a slow building guitar led track that feels like the album is waking up, slowly stretching it's limbs and pawing about as it's brain wakes up only to fire off and hit the ground running with You're serious. Which kicks of with a blast of sound and snares that make me think of drumlines hyping up the stands. The track is basically one long chorus with a repeated sentiment of "make it sound like this" it's Soren letting us know he wants your attention and backing that up with some infectious ryhthms. The drumline energy continues straight into the next track lil qoo where we are finally treated to some actual versus and choruses. The lyrics are an ode to finally finishing that project you've been working on and sending it out into the world and the anticipation of feedback. It's a rush of excited, anxious, hopeful energy that's boosted by the knowledge of this being Tsubi Club's debut album.

Moving along to the next track BURNMATERIAL which is a rockin lil power pop tune about feeling stuck and wanting to burn it all down and start again. (said link has nothing to do with the song but I had the opprotunity to reference a project I made and I took it.) The hook for this is based around a sample of ゆきこさん (Yukiko-san) by Japanese punk band ミドリ (Midori) screaming out the japanese pronunciation of "destroy" which, mixed with lyrics about adding gas to the fire, feels like we're looking right into Soren's mind during the creative process, a man trying to push himself forward into new things while fighting back against all the anxiety and nerves that come with being honest and open about yourself to the people around you.

Anxiety over creation and honesty is present all over this album, with songs like lil qoo, BURNMATERIAL, ( ╥﹏╥ ) (which is pronounced "motion sickness" according to Soren), all-time chump, and recap: all have lyrics about Soren feeling the pressure of being in the public eye as an artist and the pressure to be creating and evolving over time. The subject matter would feel stale but his production work across the album is what keeps everything fresh. lil qoo has that drumline, BURNMATERIAL uses that Midori sample as exclamation points, all-time chump rides a Kitty Katt sample to give a real comeback kid vibe, ( ╥﹏╥ ) is a punchy hyperpop and hip-hop (hyperhop?) inspired beat, and recap: feeling like Soren paying homage to emo band Oso Oso who's previously sampled before on Laced Up as he recounts how gaining noteriety for his music has changed his life and caused the burnout that seems to be what lead him to quitting his time as Biskwiq and later emerging as Tsubi Club. It's an eclectic mix of styles that uses the similar lyrical subject matter to make it feel like these songs are all snapshots of Soren's feelings as he made these rather than a man stuck in a loop of anxious thoughts.

I mentioned it before but throughout the album you hear the voice of Phil from Disney's Hercules. But it's not Danny DeVito's iconic performence and instead it's voice actor Daniel Riordan's reference voice used for the movie. The voice clips used throughout range from encouragement to telling herc to take it easy, to the line that inspired the song title of all-time chump. Soren seems to be using Phil as a sort of narrator/internal monolog throughout the album, a voice in his head pushing him to try harder and improve but also making sure he's staying humble, taking breaks, paying attention to those around him. The track that most directly refrences the film (all-time chump) forgoes any Phil sampling (it opens with a sample from the Cartoon Network show Clarence instead) and has the lyrics where Soren talks about imposter syndrome and meeting people's expecations of him, the lack of Phil samples mirroring that the part of the movie being referenced here is where Herc allienates himself from his friends by getting too caught up in the fame and glamor he was given through his heroics. It's not hard to see where Soren's mind was when making this album. It should also be noted the next two songs in this album (BUMPR and bbbackboard) are an instrumental and a song about a friend opening up to him about her transgender identity, a moment of outward reflection of the lives around him before the track recap: where he's recounting his life up from 2019 until now. The Phil samples are a part of the story here, his role in the movie is to take Hercules from this awkward teenager with no control over his strength into a hero who can ascend to the heavens and take his place as a god. But again, he's not using Danny DeVito's iconic voice, he's using the reference track, something put in place to be replaced later by the finished product. While I wouldn't call this album unfinished, the message here seems pretty clear. Soren started a story line with "burbank house" and "laced up" and has stated these tracks are not part of that canon. He took a break from the story for a training montage, an album about his insecurites as a creator trying to meet the expectations he's set, a warm up session for the things to come. Throughout the song landslide there's the repeated phrase "If, if you wanna hit the ball farther/Swing the bat harder, swing the bat harder" and the bridge to lil qoo features the line "I went and made something (Oh), tell me what you think", Soren swung hard on this album and if you're reading this Soren, I think you hit a home run with it. Not bad, kid.

Final Score: 8/10

Check out/Buy the album out here!