TRIViAL

TRIVIAL (stylized as TRiViAL or TRIViAL) is the 1st album and solo project by Xavier Ellis. It was released January 8th, 2022, at 7pm EST by record label Matador Records. This is Xavi’s first solo album. His second solo album is PURSUiT.

## Background

After The Mane wrapped up production for their album i sincerely apologize for what happens next, Xavier got to work on re-recording unreleased singles of his along with recording new songs.

On January 2nd, 2022, RLW went an a short-lived hiatus to protect fans, employees, and wrestlers from contracting COVID-19. Xavi noticed some fans were mad and spoke out about the outrage.

*”the pandemic’s not f\*\*king over. get the vaccine if you’re eligible, stay home and wear a mask if you’re able to. once covid’s gone for real we’ll be back in the ring beating people up. take this s\*\*t seriously and stop spreading misinformation.”* - Xavi’s tweet about the hiatus

the same day, he teased his solo project.

*“while we’re on hiatus maybe you’ll get a little something from me idk. be nice”* - Xavi’s follow-up tweet teasing TRIViAL

A few days later, on January 7th, Xavi posted a series of cryptic tweets, mentioning Saturday, his strange love for 7pm, and a hole and candle emoji. This sent fans into a frenzy online and almost caused Twitter servers to crash.

## Promotion and release

### Cover

The cover depicts a closeup of Xavi, in black and white, with his face dripping with a mysterious black ooze, some of it landing on his tongue which is sticking out. Fans speculate that the cover is foreshadowing the return of RLW wrestler Queen Demon, who is rumored to return after Xavi and Mateo Lavernge’s match at RLW RISE, the next pay-per-view for the company.

### Marketing

Xavi only promoted his album once on social media, however he plans to promote it more when he and The Mane perform on an upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live.\* He had a Vevo LIFT perfomance on March 18th, 2022, where he performed "TOO WELL" with The Mane guitarist Damien "Dami" Copeland.

\*Subject to change.

## Critical reception

TRIViAL received around the same critical response as The Mane’s album ISAFWHN. Considering it was a solo project, and some may not listen to Xavi outside of The Mane, it didn’t receive the same hype.

* Metacritic: 92/100
* AnyDecentMusic?: 8.8/10
* AllMusic: 4.5 stars
* The Daily Telegraph: 5 stars
* Entertainment Weekly/EW: A
* The Guardian: 4 stars
* The Independent: 4 stars
* The Line of Best Fit: 9/10
* NME: 5 stars
* Pitchfork: 8.5 stars
* Rolling Stone: 5 stars
* The Times: 4 stars

## Commercial performance

TRIViAL has sold over 799,000 physical and digital copies. “I’M NOT MADE BY DESIGN” and “TOO WELL (SWEET SONG)” are two of his best tracks on the album, grossing around 29 million streams on Spotify and 25 million views on Youtube. A snippet from “TOO WELL” was released a year prior to TRIViAL’s release and it was one of the most anticipated songs from the album, according to several polls. The music video for "I'M NOT MADE BY DESIGN" has over 28 million views so far and the Vevo LIFT performance for "TOO WELL" has over 6 million.

## Track list

In no particular order.

1. I’M NOT MADE BY DESIGN
2. THAT’S IT (FOR TONIGHT)\*
3. TOO WELL (SWEET SONG)\*
4. WHAT DID YOU THINK???
5. PREDATOR AND THE PREY
6. YOUR BLOOD
7. PHOBIC
8. WAIT FOR ME\*
9. DIET PEPSI\*
10. I WAS JUST A KID

\*Previously an unreleased song.

## Controversy

Despite the release of TRIViAL and several songs on the album succeeding, conservatives still hate Xavier Ellis. Many still believe that Xavi’s music is trying to turn the kids gay or into violent adults. Some have even called Xavi slurs and derogatory words. Nevertheless, Xavier still doesn’t care.

## Trivia

* “I’M NOT MADE MY DESIGN” was inspired by Ozzy Ozbourne’s discography. Some fans believe that Ozzy will join Xavi in a remix of the song in the near future.
* "DIET PEPSI" was co-written by Oliver “Ollie” West, a former frontman for Ophelia’s Roses.
* ”TOO WELL” and “PREDATOR AND THE PREY” are both allegories for sex.
* ”THAT’S IT (FOR TONIGHT)” is about the time Xavi got injured while attending a classmate’s birthday party, where two girls got in a physical fight and threw glass bottles at each other. One of the glass bottles hit Xavi’s head, breaking his nose and scraping a small portion of his forehead.