DJ Haram Beside Myself
DJ Haram's Beside Myself arrives as a brazen debut that fuses Jersey club propulsion with Middle Eastern textures, yielding a record that is at once menacing and kinetic. Across professional reviews critics note that the album's best songs - including “Voyeur”, “Sahel” and “Lifelike” - balance abrasive, genre-bending production with moments of instrumental clarity that register as the collection's most affecting statements.
The critical consensus, reflected in a 79.6/100 score across 5 professional reviews, emphasizes collaborative ambition and a focus on club catharsis. Reviewers consistently praise tracks such as “Do u Love me”/“Do U Luv Me” and “Sahel” for marrying aggressive club beats to Middle Eastern percussion and exotic instrumentation, while pieces like “Voyeur” and “Lifelike” are singled out for their murky, dystopian textures and instrumental force. Critics note recurring themes of political unease and confrontation - anger, de-fetishisation of non-Western sounds, and organized dissidence - woven into the album's furious sound design.
While many reviewers celebrate the record's thrilling club bangers and confrontational production, some observe a looseness in overall shape and a divide between vocal collaborations and the instrumental high points. Taken together, professional reviews present Beside Myself as a striking, occasionally challenging statement that stakes DJ Haram's claim to hybrid electronic innovation and makes a persuasive case for why these standout tracks rank among the best songs on the record.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Do u Love me
1 mention
"Album standout "Do u Luv me" featuring Kayy Drizz brings us hard-hitting Jersey club"— Resident Advisor
Do U Luv Me
1 mention
"‘Do U Luv Me’ sends a heavy Jersey club beat into the yawning abyss"— Clash Music
Voyeur
3 mentions
"The instrumental “Voyeur” gallops through dystopia, a clatter of drums rushing through keening slashes of violins."— Dusted Magazine
Album standout "Do u Luv me" featuring Kayy Drizz brings us hard-hitting Jersey club
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Walking Memory
Remaining
Fishnets
Lifelike
Voyeur
Do u Love me
Stenography
IDGAF
Badass
Loneliness Epidemic
Sahel
Distress Tolerance
Who Needs Enemies When These Are Your Allies?
Deep Breath (An Ending)
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
DJ Haram’s Beside Myself finds its best tracks in the instrumentals, where cuts like “Voyeur” and “Loneliness Epidemic” gallop through dystopia and dance with uncanny poise. Kelly’s sentences relish the murky textures and middle eastern strings, praising moments that pare back collaborators to the artist herself. The reviewist voice admires the album’s political ache and haunted atmospheres, noting that the vocal pieces are affecting but it is the instrumental pieces that truly enthrall listeners searching for the best songs on Beside Myself.
Key Points
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The best song(s) are instrumentals like "Voyeur" and "Loneliness Epidemic" because they foreground Haram’s murky textures and dance energy.
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The album’s core strengths are its layering of middle eastern instrumentation with ominous low-end and collaborative guest appearances that enhance, not overshadow, the artist.
Themes
Critic's Take
Tom Morgan frames DJ Haram's Beside Myself as a menacing, exhilarating debut where the best tracks - notably “IDGAF”, “Do U Luv Me” and “Sahel” - marry Jersey club aggression with exotic instrumentation. He writes in a vivid, slightly ominous register, praising the album's "menacing monster" production and its stack of "exhilarating club bangers" while admitting the set sometimes "lacks a bit of shape". The reviewer's voice is urgent and descriptive, making clear the best songs deliver ruthless energy and intriguing textures that make Beside Myself one of 2025's most thrilling club records.
Key Points
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The best song(s) like "IDGAF" fuse footwork, darbuka and doomy guitars to become relentless club standouts.
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The album's core strengths are daring, menacing production and a thrilling array of guest features that amplify its intensity.
Themes
Critic's Take
DJ Haram's Beside Myself stakes a claim with abrasive, confrontational pieces that reward close listening, and the best tracks - notably “Voyeur” and “Badass” - crystallize her anti-hedonist, political thrust. The record's power comes from reanimating appropriated sounds through memory and intensity, so “Voyeur” feels like a claustrophobic manifesto while “Badass” channels embedded feminist rhetoric. Collaborative highlights such as “Remaining” and “Sahel” widen the album's scope, their trumpet, Arabic verses and jungle breaks carrying urgency. This is a long-awaited debut that refuses easy solidarity and forces a reckoning with complicity, comfort and performance.
Key Points
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The best song, “Voyeur”, embodies the album's anti-hedonist, claustrophobic intensity and political edge.
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The album's core strengths are its de-fetishising of global sounds, confrontational politics and collaborative, abrasive textures.
Themes
Re
Critic's Take
DJ Haram's Beside Myself feels like a squall of righteous noise, and the best songs - notably “Do u Love me” and “Fishnets” - land like club-ready detonations amid the fury. Sue Park's review revels in the album's harshness and collaborative bravado, arguing that “Do u Love me” is a Jersey-club-meets-industrial standout while “Fishnets” is a braggadocious anthem. The reviewer frames these tracks as the album's clearest examples of catharsis and technical command, even as quieter pieces like “Who Needs Enemies When These Are Your Allies?” provide melancholic counterpoint. Overall, Park presents Beside Myself as an exercise in organized dissidence and bodily impact, making the best tracks the ones that refuse to let you settle down.
Key Points
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The best song, "Do u Love me," is the album's most powerful club-ready track, pairing Jersey club energy with industrial heft.
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The album's core strengths are its uncompromising political rage, collaborative breadth, and capacity to translate that intensity into club catharsis.
Themes
Critic's Take
DJ Haram's debut Beside Myself finds its best tracks in the bruising, electrifying collisions of sound. The reviewer's eye lingers on “Lifelike” as an ominous, cramped centerpiece and on “Sahel” for its breakbeat-versus-darbuka rush, while “Distress Tolerance” contains perhaps the album's best verse. Cardew writes with grim relish about club beats and claustrophobic drones, making clear that the best songs on Beside Myself turn weaponized pessimism into ecstatic release. The record's collaborative flourishes let these standout tracks feel both furious and oddly liberating.
Key Points
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The best song(s) stand out because they fuse Middle Eastern percussion with electrifying breakbeats and vivid collaborations.
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The album's core strengths are inventive production, powerful guest turns, and a mood that converts anger into liberating energy.