After a four-year hiatus, Michael Gordon’s return to the cultural zeitgeist as Mk.gee, 2024’s Two Star and the Dream Police, is a middle finger to modern musical conventions. Marrying 80s-style synths with deja-vu-inducing digital soundscapes, Police-esque power ballads, and distinctive production wrought with texture and murk, Two Star exists at the intersection between musical innovation and familiarity.
Screeches, oscillating synths, and thin digital drums set the tone with the album’s first track “New Low,” a satisfyingly unsettling criticism of inauthenticity. While the song’s true meaning is up to interpretation as a message to old flames or musical contemporaries, Gordon describes this new low as a state of not being true to oneself. He questions his subject directly, “Who’s been pulling the strings up and down your back?” emphasizing his disdain for unoriginality and falseness, values evident in his continued commitment to his own personal weirdness and denial of convention all throughout Two Star.
A highlight of the project, track two “How many miles,” ruminates over feelings of discontentment and self-determination. Soft vocals float over an accompaniment of warbling- chorus-ridden guitar as Gordon opens with the line “If you’ve got something go and hide it.” Gordon’s lyrics, though simple and digestible, emanate an irrefutable poignance and sense of reflection. Each song carries the emotional weight and vulnerability of a well-hidden diary entry with an ever-present sense of anxiety, desperation, and longing.
Track three, “Are You Looking Up,” continues this trend playing out in desperate pleas to a past love. Gordon lavishes each and every line with heaps upon heaps of heartache juxtaposed by crunchy nylon-strung guitars and crushing metallic drones, capturing feelings unnameable yet universally known, only made tangible through song.
In track eight “I Want,” something of a spiritual successor to The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” Gordon takes a softer approach, abandoning chaotic, dynamic compositions in favor of simple drums beats, warm blankets of all-enveloping synth, and verbed-out guitars that cascade through the mix like rainfall. This subtlety gives way to Gordon’s mastery of melody, battling his own shortcomings and guilt over past mistakes, “I’m not your hero but I got his desire” he cries, but regardless, he still proclaims that “I want what I want.”
And while Gordon excels in crafting slow-paced, hard-hitting laments over love and self-reflection, he is no stranger to dancey pop rock anthems either. Tracks like “DNM,” “Alesis,” and “Candy” draw heavy influence from spheres of funk, RnB, rock, and soul, enabling his D’angelo and prince-inspired vocals to shine through in belts and infectious melodies that dare the audience not to sing along. Moreover, “Alesis” boasts some of my favorite lyrics of the album, lines like “I’m in another body who’s in somebody else; Both of them headless and heartless, dancing with themselves” demonstrate Gordon’s uncanny ability to navigate the literal in terms of lyricism and delve deep into poetic and abstract should he simply choose to. This line is then followed by “You’re not a poet you’re a liar, I’m not a liar I’m just high” highlighting a lighthearted authenticity, playfulness, and willingness to poke fun at himself not often seen in many musicians today.
The album’s closing track, “Dream police” is not only my personal favorite, but a shining testament to the importance of Two Star as an album. Beginning with stomping, wide-sounding drum fills, and the scratches of a mic being tossed around, the track underscores the power of Gordon’s intentional imperfection. Throughout the project, Gordon’s unorthodox choices which in the hands of a novice would be almost destructive, captivate and allure through his clear intention and under his meticulous, watchful eye. Ultimately conveying something raw, unfiltered, original, and distinctly human, while simultaneously sounding like the sonic equivalent of woven tapestry—grueling, conscientious, precise, a labor of love and humanity. As the album closes out, Gordon almost reluctantly cries out one final “I’m taking all my love” oozing twinges of hope that maybe this threat of leaving could be the thing to bring the reconciliation he so desperately desires.
All in all, despite clear inspirations and an almost endless number of comparisons that could be drawn to past works, Two Star and the Dream Police exists in a place all its own, easily being Gordon’s most cohesive and comprehensive project yet. The only issue I can find with the album was that I did not discover it earlier, for a while my predispositions against delving into trending artists stopped me from becoming a fan but I am so glad I caved when I did.
This album was the first piece of music in a very long time that really left me awestruck, it is a constant reminder of why I love music in the first place and a heartfelt companion through difficult times.
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