Death of a Rabbit (2024) is the first full length album (of original material) from Chicago emo band Your Arms Are My Cocoon. This started off as a one-man band started by Tyler Odom, and is still pretty much the case, however this time instead of using computer drum loops, he collaborated with a live drummer under the name Lobo.

This album was mastered by Will Killingworth, who is an absolute Emo legend. He was a founding member and guitarist for the band Orchid and played on all their classic albums. In the past decade he's shifted into other bands but mostly the studio to help hundreds of emo bands mix their albums, like American Pleasure Club AKA Teen Suicide, Chat Pile, Foxtails, Terrifying Girls' High School, Algae Bloom, Blind Girls, Viper the Rapper, or at least the former strange manager of Viper, and this one, Your Arms Are My Cocoon.

I was a huge fan of their self-titled EP when it came out in 2020. They had a stand alone style that nobody else was doing. Specifically the idea of mixing synth-laden midwest emo instrumentals with screamo vocals, all under an over-arching lo-fi recording quality.

This album as a whole is a satisfying direction for the band. There's major improvements in terms of songwriting and a lot of the recording quality. Before, the lo-fi production was certainly a selling point for the record's style for how fitting it was. It worked there, so it's a relief to hear some increased focus on more coherent guitars, drums, synths, and vocals, considering how well written the tracks are.

The first few tracks here showcase their brand of raw synth emo with harsh vocals, but, again, with noticably upgraded production and songwriting.

City on Fire (Closeness) definitely employs a heavy amount of Brave Little Abacus influence, which is cool.

Then the song Runner Duck immediately stands out for it's runtime of 10 minutes. It's a fairly progressive song regarding it's selection of instruments, it begins with some indie folk, which includes a banjo which i didn't expect. I also am not a huge fan of the instrument Melodica, which the last few minutes of this song prominently features, or it could be an accordion I don't know. But either way, the song is a long heavy guitar jam with various electronic ideas tossed into the mix. It's all well deserved and am curious whether they'll take this song format even further down the line with more breakdowns or something.

"through the brighter eyes of hazel" is a major standout track for it's amazing guitars, synths, math rock acoustic guitar in the middle part, intense drumming and guitar work

"houston" is a pretty layered track with mostly great keyboard arrangements and crescendo style explosiveness. However there was one very strange midi horn sound that was hilarious for the wrong reasons.

The title track is a major highlight for Tyler Odom's extremely vulnerable vocals. It displays his wide vocal range with a lot of soft spoken emo singing, with a spine chilling demeaner, Along with some powerful and dreary parts and his usual screaming.

The album's closer, "Husk" puts Tyler's clean vocals on full display for 4 minutes of a solo acoustic emo track with nothing but him and an acoustic guitar. It's almost on par with some classic Red House Painters material for it's melancholy and unique guitar tone.

So i really hope to see what Tyler and the drummer Lobo, have in store for us in the future.