What Could Possibly Go Wrong was Dominic Fike’s debut project. Initially slated for July 10th, 2020, it got postponed to July 31st due to the Black Lives Matter protests happening at the time. Dominic had started working on this project in 2019, constantly teasing its arrival. He collaborated with YouTubers and shared updates about the project on his social media platforms, building anticipation for his entry into the music industry. The release of two singles, “Chicken Tenders” and “Politics & Violence,” further fueled positive anticipation. With a runtime of approximately 30 minutes and a track list of 14 songs, does Dominic deliver on his promise of a remarkable debut album?
No, he failed to meet expectations.
Introduction
What Could Possibly Go Wrong was certainly an experiment. Diverting from his normal pop style, he experiments with rock and rap, both of which fall flat most of the time. While listening, the album doesn’t appear to know what it wants to be. This makes for a lackluster listening experience. Furthermore, his vocals follow this pattern, which also contributes to the lost identity. On the contrary, however, his vocals do sound great when he sticks to his normal pop style, making those types of songs stand out. Finally, he does do a good job at creating beautiful production throughout, which benefits the album but isn’t enough to save the entire project.
Vocals
Dominic’s vocals are great on certain tracks. The key word there is “certain.” He truly excels at his pop style on songs. On others, however, he does not sound good. Take “Joe Blazey,” where the initial pop vocals sound good, but then fall completely flat in the second verse. Dominic tries to bring a rap feel and completely fails. He does sound good rapping at times, but this isn’t common here. Later on, he tries an entirely different vocal pattern and level, where it’s hit or miss. He brings a very high-pitched voice in these songs, and you either like it or you don’t. There really isn’t any middle ground for his vocal performance. He is hit or miss on every track with his vocals, being a miss more often than not.
Instrumental
The instrumentals are where Dominic excels. Like I had said, his vocal performance was lackluster, to say the least. He tries to make up for this with his production and almost succeeds. While it doesn’t save the project, it does highlight the strengths of Dominic on this album. Spanning from the use of drums and strings to the structure of the songs, Dominic demonstrates his intelligence. As I said, he does often use different instrument types and styles, which gives the album much diversity. This diversity can be good and bad, but it is there. Furthermore, the first eight or nine songs have the same structure, with only one verse, which is also quite interesting. Bringing this simple structure is an excel, but it does show the lack of quality at times.
Identity
Apart from the vocals, What Could Possibly Go Wrong fails here. As stated in the introduction, this album doesn’t know what it wants to be. The first track is inspired by the rock genre. This introduction leads the listener to believe they are listening to a rock album, but this is far from the reality. Dominic never explores the rock theme again in any of the other 13 songs. Also, he often jumps between rap and pop, which isn’t a bad thing; however, he doesn’t balance the two well. His strength is clearly in the pop genre; however, he doesn’t rely on this enough in comparison to hip-hop. This album is a jumbled mess of different instrumental styles and vibes, which takes away from the whole project.
Themes
Dominic does have a multitude of humble themes presented on the album. Many of these themes, are vaguely built on, but they are present throughout. The main topic he hits on is desperation and loneliness. Going with this, he often talks about the stresses of his rise to stardom and his relationships. He opens the album with the desperation theme, following it with the reasons for his feeling of despair: rise to stardom. This feeling from fame is built on nearly every track and is delved into in more detail on some tracks. “Good Game” builds on this feeling citing the pressure to living up to expectations as a main concern coming with fame. All in all, while built very simply, Dominic does have many themes on the tracks that some can relate to.
Conclusion
What Could Possibly Go Wrong was certainly a slow start to Dominic Fike’s career. Missing an identity, this album never truly capitalized on any aspect, apart from the production. This being said, the album is held to a rating of 5.3/10, as it certainly misses the mark of what Dominic was trying to build here.
Weakest Track: The weakest track is “10x Stronger.” This track is more an interlude than a song, and that shows. Having a singular line throughout the sub two-minute song, it doesn’t really have any purpose on the project.
Strongest Track: The strongest track, while being a toss-up between the top two, goes to “Chicken Tenders.” Being the first single for the album, it hits on marks none of the other songs do. Vocals are solid here, with Dominic testing a higher pitched voice, which this is the only song he successfully does that. Instrumental is also solid here, which makes this the most solidified song on the project.
Song Rankings:
- “Chicken Tenders”
- “Double Negative (Skeleton Milkshake)”
- “Good Game”
- “Why”
- “Vampire”
- “Cancel Me”
- “Whats for Dinner”
- “Wurli”
- “Come Here”
- “Superstar Sh*t”
- “Politics & Violence”
- “Florida”
- “Joe Blazey”
- “10x Stronger”
Final Notes
Song rankings are always subject to change over time, so don’t take these too to heart. They also are just my opinion. With that being said, I would love to hear your opinions, so leave them in the comment section below. We also suggest subscribing to our blog. To do so, go under the tab “Contact” and fill out the form. That will allow you to receive emails of new blogs and maybe get them ahead of time. Finally, go give What Could Possibly Go Wrong a listen for yourself, as I recommend this album to anyone who enjoys many different styles compiled into an album.