Aesop Rock: Skelethon Review

Zero?  Is that you?

Album: Skelethon
Artist: Aesop Rock
Genre: Alternative Rap


8.8/10






“So what new music have you heard lately Kevin?”  “Well Aesop Rock’s new record is pretty great.”  “Oh you mean A$AP Rocky?  #PURPLESWAG AMIRITE?”  Yikes.

  Anyways, Aesop Rock has delivered a fresh product that retains his distinct cryptic lyrics but with some different production ideas and somewhat clearer themes.  His raspy flow still moves smoothly and effortlessly with a slight intensity, but on Skelethon the lyrics take the front seat for a crazy, clever, dark, and sometimes head-ache inducing ride.

     I’m gonna use this time to comment on the beats before diving into the post-apocalyptic world that is Aesop Rock’s lyrical mind.  On Skelethon Ian Bavitz takes the role of executive producer on his own record, employing live instrumentation for his beats.  “Leisureforce” has an opening guitar line, something somewhat strange, because the beats on this album act as a support system for the rhythm of the flow.  The drums have a fuzzy compression that adds to the dark mood to the record.  The drums on “ZZZ Top” are bangin’ all over the place, driven forward by a recurring tom-tom fill.  “Racing Stripes” starts out with a New-Orleans style brass sample that transitions into an old-school hip-hop beat and a shouted mantra “It’s okay it grows back!”  These beats are subtle for sure, but there is no denying their dopeness.

     Then there are the lyrics.  Hot damn.  “Leisureforce” explodes right off the bat: “Postcards from the bath paint leisure/As a cloaked horse though a stained-glass Saint Peter/Hack faith-healer, cheat death to the very end/Cherry wooden nickels on his specs for the ferrymen”.  The entire song displays image after image of everything from gore to death to religion to love to mothers (?).  “ZZZ Top” uses the alphabet as a vehicle for a journey of redemption and recognition: “Capital Z(ed), slowly maneuver the O/S is the most difficult to control/Finally O/Into the eye of Goliath you go”.  The lead single ‘Zero Dark Thirty” picks apart the entire rap game, assessing his role in rap culture and where it has gone wrong.  “Roving packs of elusive young become/Chock-lore writers over boosted drums/In the terrifying face of a future tongue/Down down from a huntable surplus to one” Ian shouts in the hook.  In the incredibly clever and funny ‘Fryerstarter” Aesop Rock likens Bob’s Donuts in his hometown San Francisco to a church, bashing organized religion by claiming fried dough offers the exact same comfort as religion without the whole opiate-of-the-masses shit: “Now the yeast, a phoenix in the partially hydrogenated/Equal parts flower, faith, healing/Might replace your previously nominated Jesus/But only if you privy to the following secret of all secrets”  On ‘Crows 1” and ‘Crows 2” Aesop brings up some incredibly dark images of death, with the first examining death from being affected by it, and the latter examining death from the point of view of a killer: “Watch your step/Watch your mouth/We all know the way that a punk goes out.”  “Homemade Mummy” also has images of death: “Gadzooks, punk’s dead, last good gut wrenched/Anennae sam cook, black book pushead/ Cat skulls stacked to the black hole sunset/Olive on a toothpick, Dagwood Bumstead” but it also has the most upbeat and inspirational line in the whole record: “Take the brain out/Leave the heart it”.  He’s describing how Egyptians used to mummify corpses, leaving the heart in to be weighed in the afterlife, but its really a metaphor on how one should live their life, to follow your passion, your heart, before logic.”

     Overall Skelethon shows Aesop Rock’s incredible lyrical ability, smooth flow, and producing skills.  The beats pull you in and keep you engaged, and the lyrics make you stop and think and decipher.  Aesop Rock will keep on going “on and on and on and on and on…”

Fave Tracks: Lesiureforce, ZZZ Top, Zero Dark Thirty, Fryerstarter, Crows 1, Racing Stripes, Homemade Mummy