Porter Robinson’s Nurture is probably my favourite album at the moment. This project is a series of illustrations I created—one dedicated to each track from the record.

Pulling a little away from his EDM roots, Porter reinvented his sound with Nurture, switching from the otherworldly fantasy-scapes of his previous project to a more grounded and introspective look into appreciating the nuances of everyday-life. The record’s visual direction, led by Samuel Burgess-Johnson, was brilliantly crafted and served as an excellent base of inspiration for this project.

Kicking the album off, ‘Lifelike’ serves as a portal into the world of ‘Nurture’. This short and shimmering acoustic piece gently revs you up.

Following the intro track, ‘Look at the Sky’ is an upbeat pop anthem which sets the tone for the rest of the project. It delves into the trappings of self doubt and imposter syndrome, covering the struggles of burnout and living up to expectations set by prior success.

‘Get Your Wish’, the lead single of the project, is a drum-and-synth-heavy banger featuring sunny hooks. The track describes Porter's pursuit of finding a source of true fulfilment in his journey of making music.

‘Wind Tempos’ is a six-minute-long instrumental medley seamlessly weaving through a variety of soundscapes. An glitchy opening piano passage eventually transitions to an utterly beautiful solo inspired by the likes of Takagi Masakatsu and Joe Hisaishi. The track culminates in a set of moving, artificial vocals giving way to a refreshing outro.

This electro-pop earworm personifies the blissful joy and euphoria of making art better than any track I've heard before. This synth-heavy track is a celebration of ‘the artist’; it flickers between the difficulties of creating art and the bursts of inspiration that spawn the works we love.

A cute and lightening flip on conventional drum‘n’bass, ‘do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do’ is a pleasant throwback to childhood. It has an atmosphere filled with glee, free from the woes of the world. As Anthony Fantano so aptly puts it, this is “what living in Animal Crossing must be like”.

‘Mother’ is a melancholic look at growing up. Porter reminisces the eventual bittersweet reality of moving out on your own, leaving behind a lot what made your formative years.

‘Dullscythe’ is the most experimental track on the record. Featuring an effectively non-existent tempo, this barrage of sounds hits you from every-which-direction resulting in what I can only describe as a satisfyingly-chaotic piece.

‘Sweet Time’ is, as Porter puts it, about “being so in love with someone that, for the first time in your life, you’re scared of dying”. The heartbeat-esque padded drum loop in this track is its defining sonic signature. It reverberates through, as Porter paints a dreamlike picture of meeting God and stopping time to bask in a world free from the clutches of mortality.

‘Mirror’ cuts deep. It is, in my opinion, the sharpest and heaviest-hitting piece on the record, depicting the back-and-forth battle of dealing with criticism and how it affects your self-worth and creativity.

Conceived at Porter's ‘lowest point’, ‘Something Comforting’ is an upbeat pumping dance record which encapsulates the essence of the project as a whole. To me, it feels like a warm hug.

‘Blossom’ is a gorgeous acoustic ballad Porter dedicated to his partner. It's an extremely heartfelt letter of love featuring one of the few instances on the project where Porter sings using his natural voice, essentially removing the comfort of the mask provided by a vocal filter.

‘Unfold’, without a doubt, features the most grandiose soundscape on the record. Right at the tail-end of the record, the track provides a mesmerising final punch, lush with a set of heavenly vocals from TEED. Colin Joyce's description of the track as “blissed-out digital shoegaze” is quite apt.

The closing track, ‘Trying to Feel Alive’, finds Porter seeking an answer for what the point of the journey was. Satisfaction was never the real goal; the struggles give life its colour.