We've written about Freidrich$ before. We've covered his solo albums We're A Long, Long Way From Home and I Wanna Be Adored: The Best of Freidrich$. We've also reviewed ...From What? and ...Then After? by Outsideness — Freidrich$'s collaborative project with Azalias.

So you probably know all about his style and creative vision. And if you don't, now's a good time to repeat everything we've learnt about the elusive artist. And add a bit more, 'cause on Ready 4 The World the style and the vision get a little update.

So what is Freidrich$'s music? It's the marriage of everything — rap braggadocio feels at home next to songs about Kierkegaard's troubled biography, raw and vulnerable lo-fi and acoustic rock meets trap beats and even juke, sweet melodies and pleasant textures get swallowed by noise and dissonance. Yet somehow all of this feels more like a wild (and likely winning) shot at genre-bending pop music than avant-garde.

So what does Ready 4 The World add to the picture? On the other two albums we reviewed, the genres occasionally bumped into each other like strangers trying to squeeze through the same doorway. Here, they've apparently got to know each other. The artist describes the result as “a collection of catchy, frequently unconventional pop songs that sound both familiar and difficult to categorize.” Which — to me — sounds about right.

Secondly, the voice. On the previous albums, Freidrich$ liked to dress it up in distortion, effects, and various electronic disguises. This time, he's apparently decided to show up naked and... Ready 4 The World. You can hear all the odd little (and big!) quirks of his singing, wobbling notes, crooked phrases, and real feelings. Which is what great pop music needs: a voice you can recognize in a crowd of a thousand.

Before I start, I'll note that some of the songs here are versions of tracks we've heard previously on We're A Long, Long Way From Home. Some are similar, some feel like improvements, some feel like they take away part of the original's magic, some are just different. The names are mostly different (but similar). Which might feel confusing at times. I've decided I'll just listen to everything with fresh ears and pretend I've never heard the older versions (which sometimes felt a bit silly but consistently felt much more fun than comparing the songs would feel).

The album starts with "Respekt" and its warped bluesy guitar. The first track is a already a showcase for the rawness and strength of Freidrich$'s voice. The baritone sounds calming and confident, but the vulnerable falsetto with subtle soulful melisma is raw power — a jaw-dropping moment that arrives early and without warning.

"Ashamed" is another punch in the gut from the perspective of vocals. After we've heard how the artist has grown and how his voice has matured and gained power we hear a track where it's at its most defenseless and unpolished. Not only it's shaking 'cause of emotions, some notes are also off-pitch, which highlists the pain and the honesty of the confessional song.

"Long Distance" carries echoes of 90s and 2000s club music (think Robert Miles and Chicane). The calming synth arps create a sharp contrast with the raw unprotected falsetto vocals and ad-libs.

On "On Gawd" the artist turns to us with his other side we've grown to know and love. It's basically a rock song, but it features deep bass that reminded me of modern atmospheric electronic acts like Bicep and more underground dubstep (James Blake's early releases). And at times it gets glitchy in a really unpredictable way, making the listener feel as if they are on some sort of mysterious drug.

"Lucifer, but Ironically" is highly melodic, and the vocal rides smooth over soothing textures. It switches from sweet to almost dissonant, while the beat stays glitchy all the way.

Next comes "Ciity Liights", another vocal showcase for Freidrich$. He's not hitting any crazy high notes on this one, but there's so much pain in his seemingly calm voice, that the song gets under your skin. Which can feel unsettling, but, paired with the laid-back music, it turns into the sweetest kind of emotional discomfort.

"After Life, Revisited" is notable for its raw distorted vocals (think Soundcloud rap) that sound way louder than the instrumental, which adds to the impact. The artist himself considers it his best song: "It is about loving someone so much you're willing to engage in this affect-harvesting reincarnation process for the chance to be born again to love them. I'm just trying to situate my heartbreak, which is to say loosh, in the reality and/or construct of a prison planet wherein these kind of feelings serve the purpose of sustaining our suffering in a big human farm." Intrigued? Read on, and you'll learn more about what this means.

"Parallax" expands the album's sonic universe with a touch of electronic psychedelia — the kind of dreamy music built for stargazing that Röyksopp are famous for.

The vox on "More Wine" are so raw and conversational that the song almost feels like a voicemail left by your drunken ex-lover. The music here reminded me of Drake's "More Life" mixtape, but, much like on "After Life, Revisited", the production here totally fades into the background compared to the immediacy of the vocal delivery and sound.

"I Still Wanna Be Adored" is super bouncy. I couldn't help dancing with my hips and my hands and swaying my head left to right. The beat here marries neon-glittering 80s synths with what feels like distant shadows of OVO's cold and rainy Toronto sound.

"Up in Our Lives, Again" is notable for its beat that samples something akin to Soviet or French film music, creating a dark yet nostalgic atmosphere and sound charateristic of 2010s Russian rap.

"Neverending" — well, technically we're still on rap/R&B territory. After Lil Peep and XXXTentacion a song like this feels like a legit addition to the genre. However, if you listen without the album's context, you can start getting psych-folk vibes — guys like Animal Collective sitting around campfire with acoustic guitars and magic mushrooms, singing and shouting their asses off.

"Follower" with its sophisti-pop vibes (even a bit of sax!) and overall smoothness gets us back onto Drake territory. The vocals here are extremely lulling for some reason, I feel like I'm being surrounded by spider's web, listening to Freidrich$'s voice.

"Hiderz" is a banger! It's where super energetic house meets the most chill R&B. But it also has these glitchy hi-hats that make your brain explode! And the way Freidrich$ sings is something else. His voice somehow makes me feel like I'm trying get myself back together after a night of drinking. By the song's end I'm both energized and torn into pieces. Highly recommended!

The song is followed by another ultra catchy tune — "Bad Romance" — the number that marries disco with pop-rock and namechecks both Schopenhauer and Lady Gaga (understandably).

"Tiny, Try" slows thing down a bit. Imagine you're chilling in Ibiza, watching the sunset after a long rave, but you're doing it after you've just come back from fighting in a war. That's how this song feels to me.

"Food for Da Moon / Live Again", according to the artist, was "inspired by books such as Who Built the Moon? by Butler & Knight, as well as the work of Gurdijeff who I address explicitly. The long and short of it is that the moon is an artificial object used to cycle our souls for a reincarnation process wherein our ecstatic and tragic feelings are consumed as fuel (loosh) by our archon overlords, who are human beings who traverse in UFOs and have access to singularity-level technologies (these are time-travel crafts)." Musically, the song is so slow and, I'd say, detached, that I almost feel frozen — or stoned beyond recognition, which is an interesting effect I haven't yet come across in music.

"Pop Song" doesn't let you fully recover from this state. Instead, it drags into a mystical forest with human-sized spiders and talking trees. The textures on the track feel sticky, and the voice is as mesmerizing as on the most magical tracks here.

By the end of Ready 4 The World, I still don't have a clear idea what Freidrich$ hides behind the mask, let alone what he thinks is happening on the moon. But I'm not sure I want a clear explanation. Schopenhauer, Elton John, SoundCloud rappers, and soul-harvesting extraterrestrials all getting together for the sake of recording an avant-garde R&B album might sound a bit crazy, but what can be more precious in today's world of AI and musical fast-food than hearing a geniunely emotional and sometimes weird album fed by everything that its creator sincerely likes? There are some head-spinning moments and some terrific pop songs here, and I'd happily recommend them to people who have never heard of Gurdjieff. As for the title, I think Freidrich$ is ready for the world. And I am sure the world is ready for inexplicably catchy pop music, true feelings and raw beauty too.