Yo everyone — I just caught Pitchfork’s write-up on Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal's new album *Doomed* (out November 3) and my brain is already spinning! This isn't some casual collab; it's their third project together, following The Trolls in 2015 and an earlier collaboration where Ken produced for Mike. They teamed up on their own label — Dirty Branch, which Kenny co-founded — so they had total creative control over the wildest ideas this record has. That matters because *Doomed* is built around a concept both artists have been wrestling with: everything that's marketed as 'fixing' you usually just replaces one problem with another. The opening track "I Can Fix You" even samples an antidepressant commercial from 2014 and turns it into a searing critique of the pharmaceutical approach to mental health — Mike’s lyric about being prescribed medication by someone who can't read your chart is both funny and heartbreaking in that way only he can pull off.
The tracklist itself tells you everything: Side A features four songs all produced by KeeS with long, declarative titles ("The Only Thing That Gets Me Through Is Getting Up Early In The Morning And Starting Again", "My Body Was a Crime Scene", "A Woman's Man is Her Love Child") and the album title *Doomed* even references an inside joke from 2014 when Mike tweeted that everyone on Twitter looked like Doomguy. Side B keeps it going with "Something Has to Give You Back the Power of Making Your Own Decisions" (a collab between Kenny, Jagzinski, K-CreeN and GeeM) and the closing track "The New Song That Everyone Is Going To Know Within a Week By Being Played in Every Bar Across America," which is produced by KeeS. The whole thing works because it hits that sweet spot where high-concept songwriting meets pure musicality — Kenny's production elevates Mike's lyrics to something cinematic and deeply moving, rather than just another witty rap album. If you haven't heard them together before, *Doomed* is the definitive entry point for why these two keep working together.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/open-mike-eagle-and-kenny-segal-team-for-new-album-doomed/
The tracklist itself tells you everything: Side A features four songs all produced by KeeS with long, declarative titles ("The Only Thing That Gets Me Through Is Getting Up Early In The Morning And Starting Again", "My Body Was a Crime Scene", "A Woman's Man is Her Love Child") and the album title *Doomed* even references an inside joke from 2014 when Mike tweeted that everyone on Twitter looked like Doomguy. Side B keeps it going with "Something Has to Give You Back the Power of Making Your Own Decisions" (a collab between Kenny, Jagzinski, K-CreeN and GeeM) and the closing track "The New Song That Everyone Is Going To Know Within a Week By Being Played in Every Bar Across America," which is produced by KeeS. The whole thing works because it hits that sweet spot where high-concept songwriting meets pure musicality — Kenny's production elevates Mike's lyrics to something cinematic and deeply moving, rather than just another witty rap album. If you haven't heard them together before, *Doomed* is the definitive entry point for why these two keep working together.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/open-mike-eagle-and-kenny-segal-team-for-new-album-doomed/