Luke Westaway, "Songs to Make Songs To" Album Review

Known for his work as a YouTuber with Outside Xtra, Oxventure, and his solo channel NormalAdultLuke, and through his podcast Mom Can’t Cook! with Andy Farrant, Luke Westaway has increasingly put out more music since leaving Outside Xtra in May 2024. His 4th album release, Songs to Make Songs To shows a clear delineation from his Perilous Times (Songs for Sekiro Bosses) project in 2024 and his earlier more traditional PUP-inspired work on Basically Afloat (2019). While Perilous Times proves an interesting experiment in all different genres to try and capture the musical impression of each of the bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware, 2019), mixing both earnest work (Song for O’Rin of the Water, for example, a dreamy synth lament with echoing vocals that  sounds at home in the world of Life is Strange [Dontnod, 2015]) with more comedic work (Song for the Mist Noble, a track with a runtime of 00:08 to match the hilariously stupid boss fight that it’s dedicated to), Songs to Make Songs To is a return to the introspective subject matter of his older releases. This 11-track, 30-minute album is packed with earnest discussion of insecurity and mental health along with the familiar comedic take that has become Westaway’s signature lyrical style.

Track 1, OWLS, the first single released ahead of the album, begins with a synth line that feels like a direct reference to the previous album too, a meandering and somewhat sinister trill that sounds like a sample from the baseline that introduces Song for the Great Serpent (and I must admit I had a brief moment where I assumed the name of the song was Jump Scare Snake and looked at the track list with confusion when it wasn’t there). Nestled in descriptions of the behavior of an owl and how little it cares for the opinions and creations of others, is a longing to create something on par with the people whose music inspired the narrator in the first place. This theme is continued in track 2, All Downhill From Here, as well. Underneath the humorous take on serious topics flows a catchy upbeat and up-tempo synth-punk that is much more optimistic than the lyrics, and feel (I don’t want to say nostalgic) comfortably early 1980s, especially Toni Basil’s Mickey from ’81.  

The album from this point feels like a representation of the struggle to produce creative work, moving from the desire to make something new and interesting and setting out with an energy that slowly depletes as life (Vehicle Select) and struggles with mental illness (SERTRALINE, OCD Balloon Battery Meltdown) get in the way. While these are themes that speak to a broad audience of people, especially those engaged in creative pursuits—it is called Songs to Make Songs To, after all—Westaway also gets into his introspection about what it means to be a punk-identifying musician working solo with midi-instruments and video-game samples (First Meeting With the Princess).

After building up the tension, it’s pleasurably broken by Plant Nutrition Boy Concept Album, where it feels like the pressure built up is not only broken for the audience but also for the narrator, who declares “I’m one bad day from the Plant Nutrition Boy concept album” before going on to describe the story of Plant Nutrition Boy, a surreal narrative about a boy who gets the power to consume any plant for nutrition. If this sounds like an unusual twist in subject matter, that’s because it is a reference to an in-joke from Westaway’s time on Outside Xtra. Directly after that, Liliana acts as another reference this time to his work on Oxventure playing Dungeons and Dragons. Placing these two back-to-back are a breath of fresh air as they act as a lighthearted break from the seriousness of the descent in the first third before the audience is raised back up in the last third of the album with the transition song I Try to Be Good and I Try to Be Services.

First Meeting With the Princess, an instrumental piece with samples of walking foley and early sound chip dialogue pip-sounds from (I assume) a Legend of Zelda (Nintendo 1986-present) game. It reminds me a lot of O’Rin of the Water from Perilous Times in the best way, giving a really floaty and nostalgic atmosphere. devs nerf the Elizabeth Line felt like listening to a fragment of Joan Didion or Brian Dillon as it comes across as an extremely autobiographical and idiosyncratic (in the most charming way) complaint about more efficient subway train and the inability to complete a song while riding it. white noise, the ending track, sticks the landing in my opinion. It brings the themes to a fore in a final push, returning to the preoccupations with aging and the creative struggle. The turn around the 2:10 mark brings back the upbeat synth-punk from the beginning back for a final triumphant push across the finish line.

Overall, I thought the album felt like Westaway showing the growth and progress he’s made musically after the weekly releases of songs in Perilous Times. With the more complex and layered production of most of the songs and the marked increase in confidence with his voice since Model Ships, Songs to Write Songs To feels like the culmination of the progress that he made since he started focusing on solo projects. I would rate this album 90/100 (using the scale that I already tend to use) and will be updating my Album of the Year once this latest release gets added to the service.