Australian emcee Thorts has been keeping himself busy this year, with a couple of shorter releases before pairing up with producer Joel Siméus as Thoel Simérville to release the full-length album Singer-Songwriter back in July. He wasn’t done though, as he now pairs up with German producer Smokey131 as Thorts131 to release another full-length album, Weightlifters.

If you’re not familiar with Smokey131, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you hear on Weightlifters. Not only by the way that his melodic and melancholy beats create a great mood to the album, always very musical without ever getting too busy, but also by the way that these beats coax some of the best introspective rhymes out of Thorts. The whole album finds this really great balance, where Smokey131 manages to make his tracks sound delicate and beautiful, but with just enough of an edge to them to keep you on your toes. In this way, he reminds me just a touch of the late great Alias. It’s also a very nice choice that they made to end the album on an instrumental note, letting the beautiful strings on “Black Swan (Reprise)” take you home. On the mic, Thorts is mostly focusing on his day to day life and his family, culminating in the very touching appearances from his two daughters on the tracks “Cat Loves Catnip” and “Pages.” He does turn the lens outward a few times, though, to varying effect. The track “Meat & Bones” is a thoughtful anti-racism song, very literally taking apart our superficial differences. On the other side of this, though, is the unfocused political anger of “Fuck Off Fly.” It’s not an especially bad song, but it does feel like Thort’s anger and frustration at politicians like 45 keep him from focusing and saying anything more substantive than telling them to fuck off. It’s a small misstep on an otherwise strong album, though.

Weightlifters is a strong debut album from Thorts131. Thorts and Smokey131 have some excellent chemistry together, and they’ve delivered a really strong and well-rounded album. Hopefully they’ll be able to continue working together, because I’d love to be able to see them build on this foundation.