Weekly Review: Death Grips – Year of the Snitch
this week for the weekly review, i’m listening to the 2018 record from Death Grips: Year of the Snitch. i’ve spent some time with this band before, primarily with The Money Store, but i’ve dabbled with their other records. this record is brand new for me though, so i’m excited to dig in!
record opens here with Death Grips Is Online, a high energy track with several shifts. the refrains have a really interesting energy to them, and i like the kinda low key, focused nature of the verses. Flies is serving some Vomit Coffin vibes, spiritually at least. def highlights the rapid flux of high vocal styles here – Ride shifts between the muttering delivery and his more shouty style even in the middle of a line. the heavy, bass and distortion driven Black Paint is wild, and i really like how this track builds a kind of rising energy into it. Linda’s In Custody is a strange one, and one of the tracks that caught my attention early. part of it was that it sounded really familiar, but also the track creates this strange mood to it – interesting to read a bit of the background of the song and how it plays a bit into the record’s kinda meta narrative. a bit disappointed by the lack of literal horns in The Horn Section, but damn is it hard to stay disappointed with those drums. Hahaha has a surprisingly triumphant vibe to it, made weirder by the content of the track. def a neat song. Shitshow is a wild barrage of audio sensation. some incredible drumming on this track. Streaky is probs my fave track here – some wild energy on display here. Dilemna is a strange tonal reset if sorts – i really like what theyre doing with this one. the transition into Little Richard is great too, though i think that song’s a little too mellow for the sounds around it. maybe im too acclimated. The Fear has that jarring shift and then runs headfirst into that almost jazzy, ragged pace. extremely funny to have Outro as not the last track. the vocal delivery in Disappointed is stellar. fantastic closer.
faves – Streaky, The Fear
dislikes –
aight there were two parts of this record that had to be pointed out to me as i read about it. online discussions seemed to indicate Death Grips having prior references to Charles Manson, and i am both less informed about Manson and Death Grips prior relationship to the subject. i also saw there is a lot of sampling of prior work on this record, and while i have some familiarity with prior records it wasnt enough to make those jump out to me.
on the whole – p good. some really unnerving moods evoked on this album, and it really feels like its cover, haha. it feels like a lot of the harsher stuff is up front functions to force folks who might be unfamiliar with their vibe to almost shock into what the rest of the album has, which is an interesting tactic. i think this is a little less my jam than some other Death Grips projects though – though i had to spend some extra time for this review and historically Death Grips projects have been growers for me. i expect if i come back to this later i’ll find some more parts that shine for me.
Year of the Snitch – 6/10
the selection for this week’s suggestion pool is another Scientist record, this time it’s Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Vampires. i’ll be back next Friday, September 30th for a review, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then a pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.)
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