welcome back folks! had my record mixed up last time – this week, we’re looking at Hail Mary Mallon’s other record, Bestiary, from 2014!

i quite enjoyed Bestiary! it has some skits throughout the album that don’t… really pertain to the thematic content of the songs, but tells the story of the band putting on a ~Fundraiser Concert~ for a bowling alley, and its pretty funny. i dig the lighthearted bits that sit at the end of many of tracks here.

i also think that in many other regards, HMM is working extremely tightly. the best example, for me, is also the song i was most familiar with going it – Whales. its catchy, its punchy, and its a very fun song. i mentioned this before but i really think Rob Sonic and Aesop Rock’s flows and delivery styles really shine if they dont separate their bars, if they mix their lines together, and they do that throughout this album in really neat ways. Lyrically, theres a lot of subject matter covered here, much of it about growing older or making a living in the world, though much of it goes back to a kind of social food chain – there is a very funny bit related to Whales, where an earlier track about being poor is called “Krill”, whereas Whales brags about getting stacks of cash. there’s a lot of fun individual lines to pick out throughout the record as well.

on the whole, i really enjoyed this record! pretty tight package of songs.

faves – Whales
dislikes –

Beastiary – 7/10

next week its The Impossible Kid for real.


first: Music For Earthworms | previous: Hokey Fright | next: The Impossible Kid

all my reviews for Aesop Rock