Aesop Rock - 'Skelethon'

AESOP ROCK
Skelethon

Rhymesayers, 2012

• FAVORITES:

  "Leisureforce," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Crows 1"

• FLAVORS:

  Tepid Cherryade, Cinnamon

RATING:

TRACK LIST:

• Leisureforce
• ZZZ Top
• Cycles to Gehenna
• Zero Dark Thirty
• Fryerstarter
• Ruby '81
• Crows 1 (ft. Kimya Dawson)
• Crows 2
• Racing Stripes
• 1,000 O'Clock
• Homemade Mummy
• Grace
• Saturn Missiles
• Tetra
• Gopher Guts

People don’t get that hip-hop is like an onion: there are several layers to it. Aesop Rock knows that better than most, however, he is like the Captain Beefheart of rap; he grew up listening to it, but after growing and maturing as a person, he realized that there is so much more you can do with the medium of rhythm and poetry then brag about the size of your gun. This ethos of experimentation and nonconformity is tastefully demonstrated yet again with his latest record, Skelethon.

The album has an emotional charge to it that escaped his previous records. In this case, the sudden death of his best friend and the collapse of his marriage—things that were once played a vital role in his daily life—have all-too-suddenly been transformed to social fossils, which the skeletal imagery scattered throughout the album may or may not pay homage to.

You can expect the customary bombardment of cryptic symbolism, stream of consciousness musings, seemingly incoherent babbling, and mercurial instrumentals glued together by his distinctly unique voice and flow, as well as some of his most oddball choruses and song structures yet—not to mention that the entire album is entirely self-produced and boasts no guest appearances. This time, it's personal, and Aesop has crafted his own ecosystem in this release, a toxic emotional environment for anyone to be a part of, except the man himself.

He is essentially orbiting around a mish-mash of influences, thoughts, ideas, and personal sentiments in the record, all of which he navigates through with the seamless transition you've come to expect from the veteran wordsmith. This results in a musical reflection of his peculiar thought process and currently melancholic mindstate.

It’s not his best record, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does sit comfortably with his considerable back catalogue, somewhere between None Shall Pass and Bazooka Tooth, but no were near his untouchable earlier releases like Float, Labor Days, and Music for Earthworms.