Human Memories – 1stname Lastname (2026) – Album Review

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James Krustofski
February 11, 2026
5 minutes read

Release Date: February 6, 2026

I have a crazy cold and I’m on dextromethorphan HBr and phenylephrine hcl. The body is weak and the senses are slightly misaligned. Perfect conditions for honest listening and a music review. On my second monitor, Barbershop 2: Back in Business is playing silently in the background – Cedric the Entertainer is gesturing and speaking passionately about dignity, while in my headphones spins Human Memories the debut from 1stname Lastname, also known as Arson Rivvers, released on Heterodox Records.

Under the influence of cold medication, the edges blur in productive ways which makes this album even more … globular. Every child who fell asleep watching the Weather Channel at 2:00 AM on a snowy school night in 1993 will get something out of this album. The tones here carry that same fluorescent melancholy, or corporate optimism if you will, humming beneath atmospheric dread. If capitalism had a radioactive thermal shadow, it would probably look/sound like this album. It can feel comforting. It can feel destabilizing. It sounds dangerously familiar and that can be enlightening or terrifying depending on your mental state. What street were you living on at age 24? Who did you kiss and forget? What job did you swear you’d never have again in 2007? The specifics blur. Yet somehow Doug Funnie’s love interest remains permanently etched in your cortex. The brain hoards odd relics.

This flavor of American culture forms the chassis of millions of hollow machines. Vessels filled with styrofoam and laminated coupons to Denny’s. The only juice you can get out of this orange is re-purposing the sounds, the sights and the “wonder” into your own encyclopedia or autopsy. Listen to this album when you want to know where it ended and where it went terribly wrong in your life – to examine the moment the promise thinned out and the gloss started to peel. It’s vague, it’s illusory and it feels so good to relive it.

This album has an accompanying VHS tape music video that’s available here that I really need to check out. I’m sure the visuals are just as bleak as the music.

Great album.