Idiot Savant by I Am Hologram is a skeleton key to the human psyche, a collection of acoustic whispers that unravel into delicate thunder. Every chord feels like a question, and every lyric hangs like an unfinished sentence in the space between breaths. Stripped of ornamentation, the album bares the artist’s marrow, exposing emotions that resonate as both haunting and achingly familiar.
The title itself, Idiot Savant, is a paradox: brilliance entangled with imperfection, clarity wrestling with chaos. It mirrors the album’s ethos—a dive headfirst into the fractures of the human condition, revealing the beauty in jagged edges. Tracks like “Uncomfortably Numb” confront themes of isolation and self-reflection, while “Dope Sick” captures the desperate pull of addiction with vivid, cutting imagery: “I feel you in the back of my throat, it’s a mildew I cannot explain.”
“Derelict Starchild” stands as an existential portrait, peeling back layers of identity and faith: “Faith is an ugly thing to taste when the mirror’s rearranged.” Meanwhile, “My Scorpio Heart” and “Stereo Muse Queen” delve into the complexities of love and longing, each lyric painting a vivid emotional landscape that is as beautiful as it is fragile.
There’s no escape in this album—only surrender. Each track is a journal entry, unspooling like letters from a version of yourself you’ve tried to forget. The sparseness of the arrangements creates a vacuum, drawing in your doubts, dreams, and unspoken truths. This isn’t music designed to comfort; it’s an invitation to confront the contradictions that make you human.
By the time you reach “Saint Christopher,” a sprawling six-minute meditation on redemption and self-discovery, you’ve been through the ringer—left wondering whether you’ve found answers or just uncovered better questions. Its gentle resolve offers a fragile sense of closure, like holding a warm stone in a storm.
Idiot Savant isn’t just an album; it’s a reckoning. A cracked window into the world, it invites you to stare into the imperfections and find something beautiful within them. To listen is to confront yourself and emerge, perhaps, a little less afraid of what you’ll discover. This is I Am Hologram in their truest form: unapologetic, unwavering, and quietly transformative.
A Real Horrorshow Symphony: A Review of Idiot Savant
By Ishmael Nihil
Oh my brothers and only friends, let me tell you of this bolshy choral work, Idiot Savant, by the devotchka-loving chelloveck known as I Am Hologram. It’s not a mere album, oh no, but a malenky bit of the old ultra-sonic—a sonic tolchock right to the gulliver. A journey through the gloopy, sinny recesses of a veshch’s soul, all lit up with real horrorshow strumming and dratsing melodies.
The opening, "115," is a quiet bit of the old in-out-in-out, a tease of what’s to come. Just a few bars of guitar that viddy like the slow rising of the blood-red dawn. But then the razrez comes sharp and heavy with "Uncomfortably Numb," a tune that slices like a nozh into the heart of the lonely. “Where has your solitude gotten you?” sings our droog Hologram, his goloss trembling with the weight of it all, like he’s lost his way in the malenky dark.
And oh, my droogs, "Dope Sick" is where the milk-plus turns sour. The guitars drip with the veshch’s pain, each chord a sobbing pleat for relief. You can almost slooshy the veins crying out, the shivers rattling his bones. A real veck’s lament, this one—a true mesto for those who’ve danced with the old devil’s candy.
"Derelict Starchild" lifts us from the muck, if only to toss us into the cosmic horrorshow. Here’s where the artist’s goloss takes on a veshch-like otherworldliness, crooning tales of nervous cyborgs and fallen star-children. It’s a platch of a track, full of longing for a home that doesn’t exist.
When you slooshy "Blood On the Pavement," you feel the crunch of boots in the snow, the drip-drip of red into the cracks. It’s urban malenky life, my brothers, where the streets are alive with the ghostly echoes of violence. The guitar lines are jagged, sharp like a britva, and the words linger like cigarette smoke in a darkened underpass.
And then, oh my droogies, the interludes. Those precious bits of quiet madness scattered through the disc like crumbs for the curious. Each one a tiny rabbit hole into the mind of this chelloveck, pulling you further into his world.
"My Scorpio Heart" is a love letter scrawled in the blood of obsession. A goloss heavy with heartbreak, a melody that sways like a drunk devotchka at the end of the bar. It’s beautiful, but oh so very cracked, like a mirror showing too much truth.
"Not Today Satan, Not Today" brings the veshch’s fight to the front. It’s the anthem of the weary, the song of a chelloveck done with all the sinny games. The lyrics jab and poke like a knife-fight, but there’s hope here, buried under the scars.
And then, as the clock ticks down, we reach "Saint Christopher." Oh, my brothers, this is the epic of the piece, the crescendo of all his malenky woes and wonders. The guitars swell, the goloss rises, and you feel the weight of it all—this life, this journey, this attempt to find peace in a world that’s all bog and no sky.
Idiot Savant isn’t just music, my brothers; it’s a veshch you feel in your gut, a journey you don’t come back from the same. It’s raw and it’s real, and it leaves you feeling a bit like Alex after his bit of the old Ludovico treatment—dizzy, drained, but alive with the truth of it all. A horrorshow masterpiece, my droogies. Give it a sloosh and viddy for yourselves.
Rating: 10/10 real horrorshow tolchocks.
Where has your attitude gotten you?
Where has your solitude gotten you?
Where have your predictions gotten you?
Where have your addictions gotten you?
You're the light of the world
And you don't even seem to care
Where has your evidence gotten you?
Where has your innocence gotten you?
Where has your ignorance gotten you?
Where has your arrogance gotten you?
You're the light of the world
And you don't even seem to know
I've become uncomfortably numb
To everything and everyone
Theres danger on the west side of light
The birds go crazy from the powerlines
and I trust you will find your way back to me now
I need you
i feel you in the back of my throat
its a mildew I cannot explain
and i hope to find my way out of this box
I'm dope sick
and I need you back in my life
I can see you behind enemy lines
Disinfected and On the horizon
I became the sun for my universe
But that time has passed
and I need you back in my life
I swear I'll quit after the next high
I can't breathe right
The cramps cave me in
and i hope you enjoyed your vacation from me
I've been meaning to tell you
and I need you back in my life
Hey, would you like to touch the sky?
Would you like the see me try?
Would you light up my cigar?
Faith is an ugly thing to taste
When the mirror's rearranged
I can see your smile deranged
Help this is no ordinary load
I'm sure my stomach will explode
It is much too far indeed
Yes, my love, I know
And hey, can I play you my guitar?
Can I watch you watching me
Through the cemetery trees
By the river, by the river
Pharaohs never felt like this until you were invented
And now I know you guided me here
I am a nervous cyborg
And you were a derelict starchild
And I can't wait to visit your ruins
You were standing over me
With your neck against the wind
Your saliva on my cheek
These are dreams that never last
And I only meant to have fun
Wasn't hurting anyone
I was dancing in the streets
When they pulled me over
When they pulled me over
Hands on your head please don't move
You were behind it all from the start
I can't imagine all the dark inside your shoes
And I feel surrounded by the static channel eyes
They can't live without their pain
It's just not the thing for me
Am I walking in my sleep?
Go and walk hand in hand with gods
If it makes you feel alert
If it renders you inert or distracted
Or distracted
Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
There's blood on the pavement
Sitting around thinking
Somewhere in Times Square
We're all here because we're not all there
It was too cold to die
When the trigger men smiled
And in a short amount of time a lot of people died
I said a lot of people died in a short amount of time
And there was blood on the pavement
Feels like I'm running away from what was rightfully mine
11000 miles can't heal a broken soul
And I will do anything to get you back into my bed
Do anything to get you out of my head
On a head full of acid
He walked towards the building
He walked towards the building an knocked on the door
On a head full of acid he walked towards the building
Then up come that shotgun and put his brains on the floor
It was too cold to die when the trigger man smiled
And then a lot of people died in a short amount of time
After all we've been through this is what it comes to?
Blood on the pavement?
By the time
This will rhyme
I'll be smiling ten miles wide
With your lips on my tongue
And your arms around the sun
Stuttering
Laughingly
I am digital and free
And the truth you can see
Is you're everything I need to feel complete
Frequencies in design
And you're always on my mind
And the truth
I can't lie
You're everything I need to feel alive
You got me so you don't know
I can read the writings on the wall
I can tell all hell's about to fall
Tell me what am i supposed to believe
When you found a cheap replacement for me
Cuz I thought we were something special
But I guess I was wrong
I thought we were something special
And now I've had enough
Have you had enough?
To be free is not enough
To be loved is not enough
Have you had enough?
I can take a joke but there's a limit
You've pushed me to that point of no return
I can feel you from miles and miles away
Miles and miles away is where you better stay
Tell me what am I supposed to believe?
When you found a cheap replacement for me
There is no replacing me
I'm writhing on my sheets
Insane
And I'm waiting for you to call me
And end this pain
But I'm yours if you want me
And everyone knows it
Everyone knows that I'm still your slave
And you took everything from me
But still I come crawling back to you
Is this what hell will feel like?
Paranoia
Damn Cupid's Arrow
For a sting like this
And I'm yours if you want me
And everyone knows it
Everyone knows that I'm still your slave
My Scorpio Heart
Won't let you go
I only wanted someone I could keep forever
And now you cast me aside
With this hole in my heart
Not Today Satan, Not Today -
Its hard to be without you
Time does nothing good for me
I pray for forgiveness
You were the one that
broke me down and built me up again
Our love is toxic
Its just hard to be without you love
I may never get over you
But I'll get used to it somehow
But..
If I'm fucked up and you're fucked up
Then you should know just how I feel
Cuz if you slam the door then I'll slam the door
And we both know how that feels
And if the cops get called and knock on the door
Then you know just how that feels
Cuz if you're fucked up and I'm fucked up
Then you should know just how I feel
I want nothing more than peace
You meant so much to me
We walk a thin line
You threw the pepper on the floor
I put another hole in the wall
Our love is toxic
I was sleeping on the sidewalk
Crazy as a loon
I drank me down some Medicine
That caused a Great Typhoon
There were Butterflies at Ground Zero
Shaking their heads at me
There was something wrong with you
Instantly I knew
There were mockingbirds among us
Who could not carry a tune
I am a fifth of all that surfaces
When all is said and done
May heaven help you with all your sorrows and all your pain
May heaven bless you in all your days and all your ways
Laughing like a trumpet
At Hitler's Hologram
In a funeral parlor
Wearing Orange Underwear
You can leave here by 430
And paint the daytime black
You can hear them from the train yard
On their way to camp
They left their lives behind
To boil the rocks for food
Their blood runs in my blood
Though I never knew their names
The monastery help hands
Are the lights that strike the bell
Hiding from the things
That need to stay back on the shelf
They are tying all the knots
Right behind my eyes
You can feel it in the morning
For the very last time
Suddenly as the ships sailed off
Oh how her smile it saved the day
It was mid July when we last shook hands
And we put differences aside
Far away where the angels reside
Lies a book which tells you why
It was then I tried to sell one of my hands
Cuz if you seek the truth like I do
there is nothing you wouldn't do
As the sun went down we all slept with grins
For tonight a new moon begins
In my dreams I sang on Jupiter
For if you seek the truth like I do
There is nothing you wouldn't do
Three days have passed
Since we lost our minds
What a gift the sunshine brings
As I died I was reborn again
Oh what a gift the sunshine brings
For I am the unholy roller
And I'm trying to find some piece man
I'm the unholy roller
Just trying to find some peace man