Aesop Rock – Float
welcome back folks! today, we’ll be taking a look at Float, Aesop Rock’s second record, released in late 2000.
ngl, i am still having some issues digging into these tracks, but i know a huge part of that is a statement to (word of the discography here) density, plus the size of the record. the 20 tracks here run over an hour – and there are very few slow moments.
big increase in sample quality in diversity here. tracks like Commencement and Fascination have beats thst remind me of the stuff early Gorillaz produced, Garbage has a cool string sample, I’ll Be OK has that twangy beat under it, and i REALLY like the menacing vibes in Prosperity.
something i noticed on this record is how much Aesop uses his own voice for emphasis, layering, and back and forths – leads to some really interesting bits. i feel like hes probably been doing it the whole time but with so much more of his tracks with no guest and him rapping basically from start to finish, it was a lot more notable, haha.
i didnt have tons of thoughts about the collab tracks here, tbh. I’ll Be OK is p good! a rapper named Slug performs the opening verse, but i think Aesop’s verse here plays over the sample in fun ways – the verses here are the weakest part but i enjoy the track.
i feel like this is the first release so far that is definitively more than a collection of its parts. the Blockhead instrumentals, for example, provide v interesting chapter points in the record, especially since the closer, The Mayor and the Crook, is the only track after the last Blockhead track. lyrically, theres several common themes – religion was the one that really stood out to me, on tracks like Oxygen. again, size here made some of this a bit less clear than it might have otherwise been, but i quite enjoyed digging into this one.
faves – Big Bang, Prosperity
dislikes –
Float – 7/10
next week, we’ll be listening to his next record, Labor Days!
first: Music For Earthworms | previous: Appleseed | next: Labor Days
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