Conswank, 'Low Point Retreat'

(99 Records/Good Partners, digital)

99 Neighbors may be on unofficial hiatus, but that doesn’t mean the party’s over. After pushing the limits of the local scene, hopscotching between major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, and crushing the festival circuit, the members of the Burlington-bred hip-hop collective are still making art — just not under one banner. Conswank, one of the group’s MCs, explained by email that everyone is currently taking time “to master our personal craft.”

Conswank — Swank for short — just dropped Low Point Retreat, his first solo album, after previewing it earlier this spring with a few singles. Backed by a suite of visuals, the album’s nine tracks employ several longtime collaborators and establish fresh connections.

Encompassing multiple producers, such as 99 Neighbors’ Julian Segar-Reid (billed as Anteneh) and multi-hyphenate Queen City singer-songwriter Will Keeper, Swank’s fleet creates incredibly lush and sorrowful indie rock and neo-R&B instrumentals through which the rapper confesses all. It’s sad-boi rap that feels more hopeful than that of someone like Yung Lean.

Tall, gaunt, blond and tatted the hell up — think Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby in Memento — Swank carries a heavy burden, just like Christopher Nolan’s unreliable narrator. But the rapper’s problems are not as easily defined as Lenny’s.

Throughout the record, Swank searches for something to quell his deep longing. Weed is his go-to cure-all. The promo clips he dropped on Instagram are basically one long toke. He even works at downtown Burlington dispensary Green Leaf Central. But you get the impression he knows that no matter how much Purple Kush he inhales, he’ll still have to confront himself when he tamps out his bedtime blunt.

“Sick of making all these wrong choices / In my head I be feeling like I’m stuck / Running out of luck,” he sings on “Wrong Choices,” one of the album’s early singles. Its wiry guitars and spacey synths are unmistakably Keeper. The track also features a buttery verse from North Ave Jax, another Queen City upstart who experienced a similar rise to that of 99 Neighbors in the local college scene.

The title track, coproduced by Swank and John Wehmeyer, who appears throughout Low Point Retreat as producer and engineer, keeps up the dream-pop euphoria conjured by Keeper. Swank drips melodic, syncopated bars over hazy guitars and heel-dragging beats.

Swank loves his friends and makes tons of room for them. Noteworthy assists come from formerly local singer-songwriter PhiloSofie, who serves up a scintillating hook over modern jazz piano and crisp beats on “Big City.” And 99 Neighbors’ Sam Paulino, who appears as maari, jacks up the similarly jazzy “Easy Does It” with a rapid-fire assist.

Swank’s first solo outing presents a sensitive soul searcher whose love of weed is outweighed only by his drive to create. Even though he hurts, his love of art and his friendships keep him from sinking too far down.

Low Point Retreat is available on all major streaming platforms.