Aesop Rock – Skelethon
welcome back folks! our record this week is Skelethon, Aesop Rock’s 2012 release!
okay, okay, okay! i am really enjoying a lot more of the instrumental/sampling/backing work done on the recent records, and Skelethon is no exception. Fryerstarter and Crows 1, for example, have really fun and neat stuff going on musically, and it meshes and plays on Aesop’s strong delivery in really good ways. even a track like the first half of Saturn Missiles, which while showing some fun percussion is still fairly conventional, still helps that rapid fire delivery Aes is using in the track until it falls into space in the middle of the song.
really dig the third verse in Cycles to Gehenna, the way the track kinda falls away as Aes narrates riding away. Fryerstarter is about a donut shop but the bell/keys create this weird, driving, spooky tone to it, i really like it. Homemade Mummy is pretty fun, and i like what Aes has said in interviews about the chorus being a philosophy for other things to, haha.
only one directly narrative track here, but Ruby ’81 is a short song about a dog saving a baby that REALLY utilizes a slowly escalating backing track to ramp up the narrative as Aes gets more intense, for a really effective storytelling experience.
wasnt expecting to hear Kimya Dawson on this one! i guess it makes sense why they went and made Hokey Fright after this, haha – Crows 1 has a neat vibe that contrasts with the 2nd part of the track, and Racing Strikes is a fun kinda silly.
all that said, Gopher Guts is a sobering closer, a frank look from Aesop at his career. very strong song.
on the whole, really cool record! i am definitely gonna have to come back to this one more in the future.
faves – Cycles to Gehenna, Fryerstarter, Homemade Mummy
dislikes –
Skelethon – 8/10
as mentioned above, our next record is Aesop Rock’s collaboration with Kimya Dawson as The Uncluded, Hokey Fright!
first: Music For Earthworms | previous: Are You Gonna Eat That? | next: Hokey Fright
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