1. Float
2. Commencement at the Obedience Academy
3. Big Bang
4. Garbage
5. I'll Be OK (featuring Slug)
6. Breakfast With Blockhead
7. Basic Cable
8. Fascination
9. Oxygen
10. Skip Town
11. 6B Panorama
12. Lunch With Blockhead
13. Spare a Match
14. Attention Span (featuring Vast Aire)
15. How To Be a Carpenter
16. Prosperity
17. No Splash"
18. Drawbridge (featuring Doseone)
19. Dinner With Blockhead
20. The Mayor and the Crook
For all intent and purposes this is Aesop Rock's debut album; much in the same way that The Slim Shady LP is widely considered Eminem's debut. True Aesop had dropped Music For Earthworms in 1997, as Eminem had released Infinite in 1996, but these albums were released so low-key and in such limited quantities that the majority of fans never even knew they existed. Music for Earthworms was sold exclusively by Aesop himself through his website (self pressed on cheap cd-r and all) and I doubt that more than a few hundred of those exist, if even that. That's the magic of the internet though. Even if only a few copies of that album physically existed, it was still out there and available in bootleg form on the web. The album and its follow up ep Appleseed generated enough buzz for Aesop that he managed to land himself a deal with underrated Independent label Mush.
Of course chances are unless you were an absolutely hardcore Hip Hop fan at that time you probably weren't even aware that Mush was a label in 2000, let alone one putting out such quirky and genre defying Hip Hop. As such Aesop's "second debut" album also managed to keep itself safely tucked under the radar. True it did garner him more exposure; a guest verse from Underground hero Slug of Atmosphere fame didn't hurt, but still the album was generally slept on. It served its purpose though because it was this build up that eventually led to Aesop signing with EL-P's legendary DefJux label, and finally finding his way to Indy fame. Looking back at Aesop's early work though and it's fairly obviouse that he was going to find his way to semi-stardom one way or another. He's simply too talented and too unique to have not found himself an audience. Float lays the groundwork for what most people would later discover on Labor Days and is a fairly entertaining album in its own rights.
Production for the album is split between Aesop himself and soon-to-be longtime collaborator Blockhead. Listening to the album you would never guess that the production is handled by more than one person. Aesop and Blockhead are so in sync on this project that their beats are almost indistinguishable. They provide an absolutely beautiful backdrop that could damn near be listened to and enjoyed all on its own. The songs go from absolutely stark and simplistic ("Float") to layered and breathtaking ("Basic Cable") and never sound at odds with each other. I can imagine the very nature of the instruments at use here will rub people the wrong way because admittedly they do sometimes come across as "artsy for artsy" sake, but really this is an artsy album through and through. It is pretentious. It is arrogant, and it does often come across with an air of superiority, but honestly that's part of the charm. The underground scene was so uptight in the early 2000's that you would be hard pressed to find an album that didn't beat you over the head with how "anti-mainstream" it is.
In Aesop's defense though this feel never carries over to his lyrics. He has much too much on his mind to be worried about what's going on outside of his dark, secluded world, and while his lyrics are insanely abstract, his concepts are fairly simple and down to earth. One of the albums highlights for example comes in the form of "6b Panorama". While seemingly as complicated as the rest of the albums dense material; on closer inspection it revels itself to be an enjoyable short story about the things Aesop sees while out on his fire escape.
"(I was sitting on my fire escape and I saw...)
sturdy bridges, decorated with dirty pigeons
a vagabond begging for three pennies and a princess
a junkie tourniquet surgeon urging the needle in
a batty senior citizen flashing that awful teethless grin
I saw a corner store merchant rest on a milk crate with a stog'
a pierced nose, a model with a stalker, cheap hooker, jay walkers
a table on a sidewalk with four old men slappin' dominos down
a city, a village, a neighborhood, a ghost town
I saw vandals catching tags and Puerto Rican flags
I saw a pregnant woman on the verge of bursting (boom)
I saw a blind man with a dog screaming "someday I'll see it all"
and then he sat down with his hammer and saw" - 6b Panorama
See; That's not so hard to understand now is it? The rest of the album is decidedly more difficult to decipher, but given you take the time to sit down and really digest what's being said then you actually do start to pull the veil back and uncover some of the hidden gems Ace drops. "Basic Cable" is another favorite of mine. The concept finds Aesop critisizing those who waste away in front of the television set. Aesop himself is an admitted TV addict and as such the first person narrative here hits hard. Part ridicule, part self criticism. I also feel it's worth noting that Vast Aire drops one the best verses of his career on "Attention Span", effectively stealing the song away from Aesop with his simple, but effective punchline-driven verse.
The album isn't without flaws though, and the two most glaring work hand in hand to hurt the album in such a way that they knock it down from "Amazing" to simply "Solid". The combined efforts of the bloated 20 track, 70 minute running time, and Aesop's unforgiving and overly abstract style cripple this as a full length release. 20 tracks was hard enough to sit through from less complicated artist (I'm looking at you 90's No Limit Roster), but when you have an artist as complicated and hard to understand as Aesop Rock it becomes an absolute chore to reach the last track. By albums end you feel frazzled. Like you were caught in a tornado of words and tossed around for 70 minutes. Not sure which way is up or what the hell is going on. The album takes some real dedication to dig through, and while there are many gems here worthy of multiple replays, there are just as many tracks that will leave you scratching your head with no idea what the hell Aesop is trying to convey.
That's part of the fun here though. Just because I don't understand a song doesn't mean you won't, and vice-versa. You really do need to sit down with each and every song and see which of them speaks to you as an individual; which is an impressive task in and of itself. At the end of the day though this is music - not homework, and having to dedicate too much time just to know what it is you're listening to just isn't fun. It's like reading a classic book from the 1800's. You know it's a classic, and you know a lot of work and effort was put in it, but it's like the author is speaking a totally different language. Aesop is to be commended on his skills, and the good outweighs the "confusing", but his later releases manage to introduce a more fun and entertaining sound that would counterbalance his wordy rhymes, and that in turn would be the true key to his success.
Pros
-The production is pretty good. Very jazzy and classy
-Aesop is an excellent story teller
-He drops some fantastic gems in his verses
Cons
-The album sounds slightly pretentious and has an air of arrogance about it
-Aesop is such a hard mc to wrap your head around. New fans are going to be frazzled and lost
-The running time is flat out stupid. Sitting through 20 tracks becomes tedious
Overall - 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment