The spectre of Gothboiclique is haunting underground hip-hop, whether in Asheville street rapper TopOppGen’s penchant for grungy guitar arpeggios or FearDorian’s interpolations of slowcore classics. Few artists within the new guard of emo-rap torchbearers, however, work to reinvent the sounds forged by Lil Peep and Black Kray like Le Citadell, a vast collective of indie-pop acolytes, plugg producers, and would-be pop-punkers. Much of the group’s output draws influence from the tape-worn angst of mid-2010s Bandcamp darlings like Julia Brown and the genre-agnosticism of fifth-wave emo. Survey the results of founding member Swords2’s productive 2025 for a summation of their wide-ranging tastes: Over the past year, he’s tapped his Rolodex of beatmakers to dabble in folksy, pastoral trap, bleepy emo anthems in the vein of Brave Little Abacus, and a self-produced baroque electroclash offshoot of his own.
While past Swords2 outings tended to zoom in on a specific producer or sound for 15 to 20 minutes, The Long Sleep acts as a sprawling overview of all this experimentation. Indulging his whimsical instincts, the rapper cycles between weird ideas and accessible cuts: If he’s not yearning over adorable, MySpace-era electropop on “Everybody Needs Somebody,” he’s inviting skramz upstart and Worldpeace DMT affiliate 300SkullsAndCounting to screech over chiptune synths. Holding it all together is Swords2’s distinctive vocal delivery, an unpolished wail that recalls both Gothboiclique founder Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Cap’n Jazz’s Tim Kinsella. The latter’s taste for puerile subject matter and sing-song melodies plays into Swords2’s homage to early-’90s emo. If Cap’n Jazz crooned about “kitty kitty cats” and a young Isaac Brock tearfully stated that “mice eat cheese,” then Swords2 can evoke images of “turtles with missiles” and “kittens with pistols” in earnest.
Swords2’s angst goes down easiest coated in a layer of sugary silliness. Take “Panda,” with its screwball Detroit-style beat festooned with squeaky synths and cartoon spring sound effects. There’s a winking sense of irony when his tough-guy flexes namedrop millennial basics like Harry Potter and microbreweries, but that irony draws attention to the similar tropiness of traditional emo lyricism: What really cuts through is the raw sentiment, and it’s Swords’ love for his Le Citadel brethren that transcends cheesiness. Opener “One Thing I Can’t Let Go” is the record’s most explicit nod to Tumblr-era twee pop, deploying skeletal drum machines and cute melodica to undergird Swords’ cracking vocals.
The Long Sleep’s few flirtations with a more polished sound have a dreamy appeal, but distract from the eccentricity that fuels its best moments. “Stomping,” featuring Smokedope2016, is a convincing impression of what Lil Peep and Lil Tracy might have made with access to contemporary jerk production, while the jackzebra collab “失望吗” harkens back to the sound of vintage Drain Gang posse cuts. They’re decent singles, but they’d slot in better into a separate project. The Long Sleep offers something for everyone who might conceivably hop aboard Le Citadell’s bandwagon, including some buzzy features that serve as outreach into adjacent scenes, but the newly converted will find even greater satisfaction in Swords’ EP-length releases. Fortunately, there’s plenty of those to go around.
