‘Cruel Seasons’ and the Hero’s Journey- a Study of Mxtthew Txylor
'Cruel Seasons' OUT NOW
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'Cruel Seasons' OUT NOW ---
Chapters:
The Departure: ‘left wissahickon’
The Call: ‘Situations/In the Rain’, ‘dead in my eyes’
The Quest Begins: ‘omw home’
The Vision: ‘Basement Dreamz’
The Threshold: ‘after paradise’
The First Test: ‘New Face’
The Approach: ‘innermission’
The Conquering: ‘finding home’, ‘devil inna backseat’
The Resurrection: ‘fell outta heaven’, ‘keep my spirits high’
The Homecoming: ‘on my soul’
Check Out Mxtthew Txylor here
Introduction:
Philadelphia artist Mxtthew Txylor has long been in a search for identity. With often turbulent surroundings and chaos, it’s hard to know who you are or where you can find peace. A stage name and image change in 2022 followed a climax in his struggle with mental health, but these challenges can be seen as the culmination of years of conflict with others that eventually turned inwards. Txylor was bullied as a kid for not fitting in with others, his artistic and creative side drawing him in a different direction from his peers. This led to independence which bordered on isolation, causing more conflict with those closest to him including his former girlfriend ‘May’. These conflicts only served to increase the difficulties Txylor faced, continuing and worsening the cycle. The impact of external conflicts on Txylor’s internal health can best be seen by an incident in the spring of 2022 where he was robbed at gunpoint in his own neighborhood - forever changing the way he viewed the city around him. All of these struggles provide the context for the artistic and personal journey Txylor will undertake on this album. With a changing and uncertain identity and lack of safety in his own neighborhood, he seeks to answer two core questions: who am I? and where is home?
Chapter One: The Departure
The first step of a journey is the departure, and this is found in the album’s first track, ‘left wissahickon’. Txylor approaches the metaphorical journey he is undertaking with a literal interpretation, framing this track with a bus ride. The track focuses on the who am I? question, addressing both his past and his present. He even touches on the conflict between two eras of his life meeting each other:
Now, in the present, Txylor is realizing that he no longer identifies with the people he associated with growing up. The people he once surrounded himself with, who mistreated him for years, are now showing love and trying to be his friend. Txylor pushes them off, keeping his circle tight and only those that have truly supported him can stay. After cutting out those around him who can’t be trusted, he is prepared to begin his journey. He also establishes that he’s prepared to work as hard as necessary in order to reach his goal:
Txylor has taken the first step of his journey towards finding himself and home, as he is now freeing himself of his past and preparing to work. By framing the track at the beginning and end with a bus ride, he is conveying that he is leaving behind his old identity and is beginning to pursue a new one.
Chapter Two: The Call
Now, Txylor must directly address the issues he faces. ‘Situations/In the Rain’ tackles his struggles with his faith and core beliefs, as he realizes he no longer holds the same beliefs that he was raised with. He states in a Genius annotation that the rain represents his head being clouded with emotion, and he directly confronts his habits and conflicts that have caused his downward spiral - by looking at each of the lyrics below, you can see him painting a picture of a struggling man adrift and alone, searching for an identity to hold onto. Only by identifying and confronting his state may he overcome it, so he lets it all out here:
The next track, ‘dead in my eyes’, shows Txylor taking accountability for his mental health and acknowledging that it’s time for him to start his journey:
He next confronts his isolation and paranoia, self-reflecting and looking into his own head to figure out what went wrong. The question where is home? is addressed here when Txylor questions who around him is genuinely looking out for him- home is more than just a physical place, it’s the people there, and in this track he realizes that in his current place he doesn’t have a ride or die group around him. He directly approaches both the paranoia and the unreliability of those around him at the end of his verse:
Txylor is free of those in his past who’ve held him back and prepared to work harder than ever to improve himself. Now, he is prepared to truly start.
Chapter Three: The Quest Begins
After the high energy of ‘dead in my eyes’, Txylor flips the script entirely with a slow paced hyper pop-influenced r&b track. ‘omw home’ utilizes melodic hums much like the ones found in his breakout hit ‘Situations/In the Rain’ and an electric guitar + drum instrumental to drive the song. Its structure is very simple, with two identical verses broken up by a bridge, followed by a darker and more intense outro. Lyrically, he is seeking to answer the question where is home?, acknowledging his work ethic and commitment to the grind, then asserting that he will never give up until he finds the identity that he’s searching for:
This track, much like the first song ‘left wissahickon’, is framed in the beginning with a bus ride. As this represents him departing from his past and the stage in his process where he must leave behind the known and comfortable, he again uses the metaphor of transportation to convey his journey. The physical movement of the bus translates to him mentally escaping his old mindset, identity, and home. Txylor uses public transportation, the same bus he takes on his actual ride back to his house, to connect the story he’s telling back to his current life and remind the listener how real everything is- though he is a storyteller, this journey is Txylor’s real-life experiences, and he doesn’t want the listener to forget that.
Chapter Four: The Vision
The fifth song on the project, ‘Basement Dreams’, plays out as a live freestyle recorded along Txylor’s family- it begins with him getting home and slowly unlocking the door, and ends with his family cheering for him (and a brief piano outro). It fulfills an important role in the album’s narrative, representing the vision that is the end goal for his journey. He identifies what he wants to change, both in his own life and the world and community around him:
This vision is his dream that he hopes to enact, shown by the title, and he focuses on the support and trust of his family in this dream:
Txylor is in control, and is visualizing his future. He is growing and improving as a person, finding out both who he is and where his home is- his journey is on its way and going well, and his growing knowledge is shown by his increased confidence. Txylor has never sounded more in control, and without an instrumental the entirety of the focus is on his voice and words. This directs the listener’s attention to Txylor himself and allows him to flex his lyricism. By beginning by the noises of him literally arriving at home and trying to get through the door, he’s making it clear to the listener that he is in the process of finding his home. Then, by having adlibs and shouts of support from his family throughout, he shows what is waiting for him at home. From this we can continue to see how home is more of the people around him and his place in the world, as opposed to a literal building.
Chapter Five: The Threshold
The next track on the project, ‘after paradise’, reflects the rude awakening from his dream of family and home. It begins with the sound of his alarm clock, abruptly waking him up and serving to jolt the listener to attention; while there have been many sound effects and ambient/non musical noise throughout the project, nothing else is jarring like this. After that attention-grabbing introduction, the track opens with an emotionally charged and raw chorus that directly confronts Txylor’s relationship with God and the religion he was raised on:
Many tracks touch on religion, but this one most directly approaches it. He speaks directly to God, questioning how he can possibly maintain his faith after everything he’s been through. This ties in to ‘situations/in the rain’, with the similarities between the two becoming clearer when viewing them side by side:
This point in the project represents the setbacks that come during the journey. Though just one song before he was confident and envisioning clearly where he wants to be, here he has crashed back to reality and is losing hope and faith. It’s a powerful reminder that progress is not linear, and setbacks come in every journey.
The other main storyline of this track, and of the middle part of the album which begins here, is the collapse and the consequences of Txylor’s most recent relationship. First addressed in his standout ‘Paradise (Confessions)’ on his debut album, he grapples with the loss here. In his own words, ‘after paradise’ represents “confusion and heartbreak” that follows immediately after the end of a relationship. On the verses, he talks about how toxic they turned out to be after such a strong beginning, to the point where he almost couldn’t believe that he was being done this wrong by someone he trusted so intensely. Between his lost and chaotic mental state and this added on top of it, he doesn’t know who he can trust, especially when people on the outside are looking in on his relationship and giving their thoughts and opinions. In our interview, he told me that “people were tryna tell me she’s not worth it but I didn’t know what to believe… I couldn’t believe that this person is doing me wrong.” This was the person that he held closest and trusted the most, but after being hurt by her he was told by those around him:
With everyone around him feeding him negativity and his ability to trust ruined, he turned to darker and darker headspaces. This has been the lowest point of his journey, and he contemplates ending it.
At this point, Txylor is lost, confused, and heartbroken. His relationship with God is in shambles and he can’t trust anyone around him, let alone himself. He has been completely torn down, but only now will he be able to rebuild.
To be continued…
Don’t forget to check out Mxtthew Txylor on Instagram @mxtthewtxylor_ or at the bottom of this page.