REVIEW

The fourth album from Chicago, Illinois masked artist Modern Failure.

Beyond the artist name and hometown, almost nothing is known about Modern Failure, leaving the project shrouded in mystery. The debut EP, Downward Movements, introduced a sound built on rough, noisy guitars, sorrow-soaked vocals, and unhinged screams. While rooted in the same grungegaze lineage as trauma ray and Her New Knife, Modern Failure's approach is noticeably drier, with sharper, more abrasive noise. The dreamy haze typically associated with shoegaze is kept to a minimum, and at times the music sinks into a bleak atmosphere reminiscent of depressive black metal.

The first and second albums occasionally leaned toward indie rock, but the third record reclaimed the project's darker identity. On this fourth album, Modern Failure returns to the razor-edged guitars and deeply shadowed aesthetic of the early EP while broadening the arrangements with touches of piano and strings.

The album opens with a relatively accessible run of songs before taking a dramatic turn in its second half. The standout is #8, “Don't Look At Me (feat. Xdium, Midnight Morning & repul$ion),” which brings together artists with backgrounds in shoegaze, post-punk, and emo rap. Clean vocals and rap intertwine over walls of distorted guitars, resulting in one of the album's most striking moments. From there, a series of deeply melancholic tracks carries the record toward an emotionally powerful finale.

By reclaiming the raw intensity of its early work while expanding its sonic palette, Wish You Were Better stands as a compelling statement of where Modern Failure is today.