Mystery Skulls is a funk and house-inspired music project manned by Luis Dubuc. Starting in 2011, he’s best known for his songs “Ghost,” “Losing My Mind” and “Don’t F*ck With My Money,” and many others that’ve made their rounds on Youtube.

These songs reached the height of their popularity through the Mystery Skulls Animated series on Youtube, a project that is currently on hiatus but still has a small fandom.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Mystery Skulls.

I got into it back in 2015 when I heard “Ghost.” Ever since then, I’ve been loyally following him through each single and album release. So imagine my surprise when I found out that he dropped a new album this month.

Beam Me Up is the newest addition to Mystery Skulls’ discography. It’s an album that displays the evolution of Mystery Skulls’ sound as it moves deeper into the house genre and away from its funky, R&B roots, opting for a sound that fits a party more than a story.

I’ll be completely honest, I couldn’t have been more disappointed.

Luis Dubuc has always been the master at making killer albums, but I found that “Beam Me Up” was an absolute flop of an album.

The album opens up with “Pleasure.” One of the most notable parts about Mystery Skulls is Dubuc’s ability to make memorable lyrics, if mildly repetitive. Almost immediately, I noticed the severe lack of memorable and immense inclusion of repetition.

Dubuc repeats the same set of lyrics throughout the nearly five minute long song and I found myself annoyed by it. I desperately needed a change or variation of something and I never got that.

The only positive thing about this song was the instrumental. In fact, I think the song would’ve been better if it was just the music and no lyrics.

Luckily, I didn’t hold this same opinion for “Put My Records On.”

While it did suffer from the repetitiveness of “Pleasure,” I found that the lyrics were much more fitting for a song like “Put My Records On”. It dips back into the funkier aspect of Dubuc’s style while also overlaying a blanket of chill calm to the music.

This song felt like I was driving by the beach on a summer night in California going to a tiki bar to catch up with old friends.

It’s definitely one of Mystery Skulls’ more calmer songs but I don’t hate it for that. It was one of the three songs that I liked on this album, but I didn’t like it enough to forgive the album’s sins.

“Be With You” is the second of these three songs and for good reason.

The moment it came in with those beautiful guitar twangs, I knew I was in for a treat. I found that out of all the songs on the album, this one reminded me the most of Mystery Skulls’ older style.

More specifically, I thought it was a nice, modern twist on the style heard in albums like “Forever”. With more of an emphasis on funk, earworm-y instrumental, and one powerful supporting vocal, “Be With You” makes itself out to be the star child of “Beam Me Up”.

The same can’t be said for “Keep On Living,” “All Time High,” “Beam Me Up.”

All three of these songs’ styles were indistinguishable from each other. This trio gives no variation and I thought they were all a part of a single song.

On their own, they were all okay songs, but just okay. They weren’t exciting nor did I feel myself gravitating towards them. They were like plain bagels and it left me wanting more.

They also suffered from the same problem “Pleasure” had with the overuse of repetition and would have benefitted from the lack of lyrics. “All Time High” does this briefly, but not completely for the rest of the song.

These three songs are unfortunate examples of a common theme in this album. Songs have amazing tracks, but lack-luster lyrics.

“Time Machine” is a song that left me conflicted.

It’s a song that’s definitely better than the aforementioned trio with catchy lyrics and tune, but still suffers from the issue of repetition.

It’s catchy but it hasn’t realized its full potential. An odd combination that left me awkwardly liking but also disliking the song.

“3000 Years” was a song that intrigued me by the title alone, but ultimately let me down.

It felt like Dubuc was trying to shoe-horn the title of the song into the lyrics and it didn’t give the payoff that I hoped for. The song overall was fine but it left me unsatisfied like the rest of the album.

The final song on this album is “Invincible”.

“Invincible” was another favorite of mine and I think it was an awesome way to sound off a less than stellar album. This was another song that I felt reflected the most of Mystery Skulls’ roots, similar to “Be With You”.
The entire time I was listening to it I couldn’t help but dance. Even if this album wasn’t Dubuc’s latest hit, he still displays his producing skill well throughout the song and continuously reminds the reader of his talent.

In the end, however, this talent wasn’t enough to save the album for me. It’s so unfortunate that a project as amazing as Mystery Skulls managed to put out an album that could be so disappointing.

Bops were few and far between in “Beam Me Up” and it’s a mystery as to why. For that, I’ll be giving this album a 4.9/10.

Favorite songs: “Put My Records On,” “Be With You” and “Invincible.”