Aesop Rock – Skelethon

July 10, 2012 • Rhymesayers Entertainment

There'll always be a special place in my library for Aesop Rock; after all, he's the reason I listen to hip hop, and Labor Days and None Shall Pass are still two of my favorite hip hop albums ever. So naturally I was pumped as hell for Skelethon, almost to the point where I knew the real thing couldn't live up to my expectations. Well, it did. Somehow he's completely outdone himself and Skelethon just might be his best yet.

First of all, what the hell has Aesop Rock been doing hanging out with Blockhead all this time? Not that the tracks Blockhead produced on his older albums were bad—far from it—but Aes' beats are killer through and through, and he finally has managed to put out a full album of entirely his own production instead of the odd track here and there. The end result is awesome. It's not too different from his older stuff; it has lots of rock samples (check the catchy-as-hell guitar lick on "ZZZ Top"), very ethereal-sounding synth effects, hard-hitting drums... It still sounds very much like any given Aesop Rock album, and the production is still going to appeal to anyone who enjoyed his older stuff, but here it's simply so much better in every way. It's tough to describe exactly what's going on here, but there's a definite atmosphere going on through the whole of the album—I don't want to say it's necessarily "dark", but it's definitely darker than None Shall Pass and almost melancholy in places ("Zero Dark Thirty", "Gopher Guts"), the kind of mood I already love. It's like he's deliberately playing to my tastes. The album isn't without Aesop Rock's silly and fun humor, though, as there is a small handful of much more upbeat tracks to balance things out ("Racing Stripes", "Grace").

His rapping is the same as always—rapid-fire abstract word salad which I've always been pretty ambivalent about—although it seems like his rhythmic skills have improved quite a bit. Maybe it's a side effect of making his own beats and being able to tailor everything to himself better, but he's constantly meshing his vocal rhythms with the beats which makes everything feel more unified. His older stuff often felt like the beats and rhymes were made completely separate and just mashed together later (which wasn't always a bad thing) but Skelethon feels more deliberate, and it feels great.

As usual, I don't really pay attention to the lyrics, but from the bits I catch here and there he's the same as ever. The artfully-descriptive "Ruby '81" reminds me a lot of Labor Days' "No Regrets", one of its better tracks because of its lyrics. So that's a good indicator, if nothing else. (But I'm not one to talk about lyrics, really, so I'll leave it there.)

The only misstep on the album I can even think of might be the female vocalist on "Crows 1" and "Racing Stripes"; I feel like she interrupts the album in a way and it's a bit jarring (and she's not very good, either). Those tracks (and "Crows 2") mark the inevitable middle-of-the-album slump but gladly it's not much worse than the rest of Skelethon (the great beats on "Racing Stripes" help) and it picks back up just fine afterwards—just about every other track on the album is really good, with maybe just one or two tracks total I'd cut if I had the final choice (and they're not even that bad).

I hardly need to restate how much I'm enjoying this album—but better than Labor Days? It's entirely possible. I'm not sure yet; it needs more time to sink in, but I will say the five-year wait from None Shall Pass was absolutely worth it. If, in another five years, we get another album that's as improved on its predecessor as this one was, I just might wet myself.

8

Special bonus: The whole album up on YouTube! Thanks Rhymesayers, you're the best.