Cool World is the second studio album by American rock band Chat Pile. It was released on October 11, 2024, through the Flenser.
Like its predecessor, the album received universal critical acclaim and placed on several publications' year-end lists.
Background and theme
Cool World borrows its title from the film of the same name (1992), setting the tone for an "unsettling atmosphere" with a horizon widened to depict a "decaying planet".[1] It serves as a continuation of their 2022 debut album God's Country, "only amped up".[2] Vocalist Raygun Busch explained that the project covers "similar themes" to their previous album but this time expanded to a "macro scale", focusing on "disasters abroad, at home" as well as their impact.[3] If Busch were to describe it in one sentence, he would quote French philosopher Voltaire in saying that Cool World is "is about the price at which we eat sugar in America".[4] Bassist Stin added that the goal was to "stretch the definition" of their sound in order to touch on their personal tastes beyond just noise rock and "challenge" the limits of their previous record.[5]
The album was mixed by Ben Greenberg of Uniform which marks the first time Chat Pile worked with a mixing assistant from outside of the band.[6]
Alongside the album announcement on July 16, 2024, the band released the lead single and opening track "I Am Dog Now", described as a "chunky, grating, post-hardcore/noise rock anthem", accompanied by a Will Mecca-directed video.[6] According to Busch, "Masc", the second single released on August 20, was one of the most important songs on the album as it talks about the "horrors of interpersonal intimacy" but is still in sync with the theme of "oppression, despair and malaise" throughout the album.[8] The third single "Funny Man" came out on September 24 and sees the band delivering a "seething, freaked-out rager" that ranges between "head-crushing riffs" and "90s-style funk-metal".[9]
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, Cool World received an average score of 84 based on 12 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Writing for The Line of Best Fit, John Amen gave the album a score of 9/10, concluding that "Cool World is instrumentally gripping, vocally enthralling, and lyrically calls out the horrors of late-stage capitalism".[20]
