"Okay, magpies, hoarders, and
allied forces
who lick zig-zags being dragged by
horses.
Transcribe stories in patterns of pins dropping,
skinned boars and exaggerated limb-lopping
Slow Mozart, no, I've never heard of knocking.
Might've burst in on it, splits or skin popping."
Transcribe stories in patterns of pins dropping,
skinned boars and exaggerated limb-lopping
Slow Mozart, no, I've never heard of knocking.
Might've burst in on it, splits or skin popping."
from Tetra
Aesop represents two things to me: One-
the indisputable classic that his first album "Labor Days"
was, and two- the consecutive let downs that his following releases
have been. Labor Days was an album about labor and the dream of the
artist to break free from 9-5 jobs, about love and alienation.
Aesop's flow wasn't the best back then, but he had a unique voice and
lyrical style. Over the course of what is now three more albums, it
is safe to say that Aesop has at least grown immensely as a rapper.
On "Skelethon", his vocals are always in touch with the
beats, his flow more crisp and his rhymes more complex. Despite that,
the album fails to deliver on many fronts.
The production is gritty, pretentious,
tries to be cool but isn't. Songs blending into each other, a dragged
out guitar chord ties them all together from start to finish of the
album. Does it have an audience? Perhaps, but probably not.
The saving grace of the album is that
he still has a cool voice and tries to explore different lyrical
themes. Unfortunately, the lyrics feel forced around intentionally
impossible to interpret titles which, again, try to be cool but
aren't. Perhaps this stale, forced, misanthropy appeals to someone-
again, probably not. What is he trying to prove?
As I listen to the album for the tenth
time or so, I am still left curious whether this is Aesops natural
evolution as an artist or if this blatant attempt at not being
understood is backlash from his bluntly honest debut. Skelethon tells
me nothing, and I suspect that's exactly what Aesop was aiming for;
perhaps a younger, brooding audience can bond around pretending to
"get it" but to me, the emperor wears no clothes.
High point of the album: Cycles to Gehenna
Low point of the album: Homemade Mummy
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