Aca-competitions are no joke. Groups invest extraordinary resources in crafting and mastering 10-12 minute performances that tick every box and scrape every point from the judges' scoring sheets. It's a collaborative Iron Man in which groups painstakingly select and rearrange material to present the most innovative, artistic, and flawless performance humanly possible. World We Created captures Voices In Your Head's competitive sets across 2022 and 2023.

But while the sets were created for the live wire act of high-pressure live performance, these versions are studio creations, a different creature altogether: multi-tracked, electronically enhanced, and presented as a cohesive album of seven tracks. Imagining this as live a cappella may have been easy for those who performed it, but it's a steep challenge for unfamiliar listeners.

The singing is excellent. But the arranging is the true standout of all seven tracks. The singular Katie Ko arranged all but two of the tracks, and even with these exceptions, she stands as co-arranger. It's quite rare for any group to enjoy the unifying artistic hand of a single arranger on all of an album's material. And what a talented hand it is: Ko knows her voices and puts them under just the right light to shine. She delivers a wealth of unexpected twists in chord, key, texture, and tempo. Some tell stories. Some simply demand our attention.

Sometimes inspired and sometimes simply irreverently divergent, Ko is unbounded by expectation. Some listeners could occasionally find this kind of limitless arranging a bridge too far. The classic Starry, Starry Night is almost beyond reimagined. It's a beautiful creation unto itself. But is it still Starry, Starry Night?

Mixer Ed Boyer also has a strong hand in how we experience the arrangements. The album is a swarm of swirly, strong, shimmering moments. Every note, chord and sound effect, spot on, but noticeably beyond natural; filling up the spectrum, reverberating, enhanced and a touch synthetic. There's a tension between the attempt to explore the edges of human vocal performance and the notable departure from that human restriction. Was it deliberate?

Raw emotion from exposed voices surely must have been at the core of these live performances, but the final album here doesn't embrace rawness. It's gorgeous and full. But its persistent electronic enhancements and its balance favoring the fullness of whole group rather than placing soloists exposed and far in front, moves the overall sonic experience a step into the uncanny valley. Some listeners may wish ViYH had pierced the perfection.

Music that makes you think, that challenges your preconceptions — that's a good thing.

Time travel back to 2016's LIGHTS and the reviews, including mine, are flush with praise: "Arranging is the centerpiece of this album ... ViYH makes exciting choices in their chords, rhythms and phrases ... ViYH's use of tempo is the absolute cutting edge; more advanced and elegant than any other contemporary a cappella group in the world." It is a joy that Ko and ViYH continue to embrace so many of the group's signature successes. World We Created is an extraordinary achievement. ViYH is all about packing striking choices into their music, and for that they deserve the highest praise.

If you've been listening to Voices in Your Head since 2019, you know exactly what this album sounds like. The group has crafted a signature sound that is both post- and hyper-collegiate at the same time. World We Created is the younger sibling (feels like a little sister) to big brother, Begin Again. Part of what influences this assessment is that this album is all covers instead of a slew of outstanding originals. So a step back in "achievement" if quibbling, but I'm not, because this album is probably the only outcome that could have happened from the percolation and gestation of the previous arrangements, technicians, thoughts, creativity, abilities, and singers of the previous generations of the group.

You can see where the ancestors poured into their progeny by the simple fact that Sing for Myself and Mercy / Angels fit onto this recording stylistically and thematically with ease. Or All I Ever Wanted could have opened Begin Again. Of course, it helps to have Will Cabannis as a connector, but considering he co-arranged only one song on the album, here's an example of a group learning from and leaning into their history with deftness. Welcome to the big kid table Katie Ko, your artistic output will be consumed vociferously for the future.

Snakeskin is brilliant: the swells and the quick style change from the atmospheric opening to the rapid spitting of the lead over more staccato backing. And I need to listen to the original again because I don't remember the callout to Like a G-6 being so prominent on there. Even if it is unintentional, again, we have a subtle shift in style and thought that adds a new layer to the track. Shedding the skins of various moments in either a positive or negative way — authentic or appropriate?

World We Created is the most intriguing song on the album but not the most baffling (looking at you, Starry, Starry Night, as I had to think too long and hard to understand its brilliant inclusion). Harkening back yet again, it sounds like the natural evolution of Sing for Myself and Burn as it has such rich storytelling meshed into every aspect of the performance. The song doesn't exist without someone singing it, and thank the universe that that someone is Voices in Your Head, specifically Ben Sokolow. He is sublime. His technique and phrasing unparalleled. I don't know if I like him better on this or on Snakeskin. They are the songs of this album.

I just wish all of the tracks lasted longer than their conclusions. They all seem to cut off so abruptly. It's a stylistic choice, but I just can't figure out what it is. It's probably only noticeable because I'm fixating on the minutest of details within this 19 minutes of gooey gumdrops. Get into World We Created and just revel. It's time.

Sonic storytellers from Voices in Your Head have arrived to take us on a walkabout with World We Created. In nineteen minutes, you'll shed your skin, "breathe in the exhale of the desert", somehow listen to the sun rise, ponder the sky, ponder your place, and know when it's all over for them, and you.

We're definitely outside for this release.

Snakeskin starts with tremendous urgency — the fast tempos, world rhythms, unique word play, and a summer blockbuster cinematic production value. We're back under the University of Chicago's spell, but much farther from Lake Michigan now. As usual, song placement and transitions are paramount for Voices in Your Head, easily demonstrated by the design of lining up Snakeskin and Desert Song. There's the theme, yes, but also the gentle fall into a quieter, more reflective mood. This is mindful a cappella. And we walk transfixed.

If you can wrap your head around it, All I Ever Wanted opens with sonic texture (and if not your head, your ears will do). The focus on sound as an artform is poignant on World We Created; this world isn't always singing the familiar. The beautiful refrain to close All I Ever Wanted that grows sturdier to drive to the end feels like the sunrise in the desert we've just arrived from.

The title track, World We Created, has a different vibe from the jump. I wouldn't call any of these songs neatly "mainstream", but this is closer. It matters little when taking in the whole filmstrip.

Delightful group singing that's an exhibition on vulnerability and cohesion wraps The Sun Is In Your Eyes in a glow. Delicate, precision modulations and marked arrangement shifts frame the triumphant singing in Starry, Starry Night. And lastly, I Know The End: I didn't want it to come, because I knew it'd be heavy, and firmly final. The craftsmanship showcases soft openness in the piece moving to thick clustered density that nearly strangles. "I gotta go now. I know, I know…"

Another year, more art to celebrate from Voices in Your Head. Any of these songs would be an album's "hit" for another group. For World We Created, we get seven sitting atop the atmosphere.