Few albums arrive with songs about bell bottoms, vampires, fleas, and a questionable delivery or two, but Mogipbob has never seemed interested in fitting neatly into one box. The songwriter, based in Hythe in northern Alberta, released Anything But Me on October 20th through Mogipbob Records. It is his third album and runs to 16 original songs that move through country-soul, folk-rock, blues, funk, retro-soul and western storytelling, with unusual characters, strange situations and dry humor sitting alongside quieter reflections on aging, identity and memory.
How the album was made deserves a plain statement up front. According to the artist, the concepts, lyrics, structure and creative direction are human-written and human-directed. AI was used as a production tool for the musical performances and arrangements, with repeated revisions, instrument choices, and careful selection of renders shaping each final track. Genre follows the idea: he says each song is left to find the sound that best suits its story, which helps explain why the record covers so much ground.
The album starts out with “Set-Back Out Back,” which immediately sets the vibe that this will be a different kind of album than typical albums that use AI production tools. There is a real character to this music, actual artistic integrity that remains mostly consistent throughout the album. The rhythm section feels alive and not flat like a lot of AI music, and serves to create an energetic base for this catchy and very melodic pop country tune. The strongest element in this song is definitely the melodic hooks, which is what Mogipbob is best at after listening to the whole album.
“Walking Bass” is surprisingly soulful. Every element here feels purposeful; the arrangement is stellar, but the pacing is what’s really extraordinary here in this piece because it’s very dynamic. Usually, AI-produced songs are very flat, but here you can see there is a level of attention to detail that really brings this to life, and lyrically it’s a very fun song.
“As Is Where Is” is a warm ballad that invokes the 80s sound with those Phil Collins-style drums. It is a blast to listen to; it fuses that 80s sound with classic Country-style bright textures for a familiar but ultimately fresh sound. My favorite part was those muted acoustic guitars with a chorus effect; they add to the movement and the width of the sound beautifully.
“The Fleas of Hercules” is one hell of a funky and witty jam. The interplay between the instruments is very fun and rhythmically sits in the exact correct pocket you’d want it to. There is a bit of gospel here as the retelling of Hercules’ story is brought to life in a hilarious new garb. As a fan of puns, Fleece and Fleas is an all-time classic.
“Umpire Vampire” is even more humorous, and I really enjoyed how funny it is, but texture- and production-wise, it’s less consistent with the established style and feels more like what other AI songs feel like.
The album ends on the two strongest songs, in my opinion: “It’s the Little Things That Matter Most” and “Anything but Me.” The former is a warm song about celebrating the little things and expressing gratitude for them. If one takes something like the summer rain for granted, then one can never be satisfied with anything in life. Every moment is a chance to feel love, and if a moment is painful, then that should make us feel more gratitude for the beautiful moments. The latter, however, is a painful and dark foil to this warmth. It’s a song about feeling like an alien, an outcast, a person that just doesn’t fit quite into the boxes. Its execution is very soulful; it does feel like a standard blues song, but it is exactly how it’s supposed to be.
The press materials point to more territory than these tracks cover, including “Hell’s Bell Bottoms,” “Modern Person, Ancient Solutions” and reflective songs such as “The Old Me Was the Young Me,” so there is plenty left to explore across 16 tracks. Mogipbob says this record reflects a growing willingness to follow an idea wherever it leads, and the distance between the playful songs and that last stretch of the album backs the claim up.
His main goal for the release is radio airplay. He says there is something uniquely rewarding about hearing one of your own songs turn up unexpectedly on the radio, and he is especially hoping to reach independent, college, community, roots, Americana, soul, folk and country stations. For a record this eclectic, those are sensible places to look, and Anything But Me is best taken in one sitting.
