Aesop Rock albums
earlier to be reviewed soon
Albums Chronologically:
2000 – 88% - Float
2001 – 78% - Labor Days
2003 – 73% - Bazooka Tooth
2007 – 84% - None Shall Pass
2012 – 62% - Skelethon
2016 – 91% - The Impossible Kid
2019 – 82% - Malibu Ken
2020 – 88% - Spirit World Field Guide
2021 – 85% - Garbology
2023 – 94% - Integrated Tech Solutions
2016
The Impossible Kid - 91%
Aesop Rock has been honing his craft for a while and his word-driven hip hop songs reach an apex here. Not only are his rhymes and massive rap vocabulary on point, the music that accompanies this record is his best yet, all created by Aesop himself. Whether it is tough and menacing (“Rabies”, “Shrunk”, Public Enemy energy of “Tuff”, “Defender”) or psych-rap at its best (the ethereal “Rings”, the funk-bass guitar riffs of “Supercell”, amazing career summery so far “Molecules”), Aesop displays a beautiful mix of brains and heart. On “Dorks” his chorus is “don’t need no help / I can do it all by myself / I think we’re all a bunch of weirds on a quest to belong” and it sums up his philosophy on life pretty well.
On his early albums like Float (2000), the rapper was wordier without music so much of the emphasis and it was still thrilling to listen to most of the time. But Aesop has come a long way, learning from his buddy El-P for sure and blends captivate songs with rapping now even singing his choruses a couple of times- The playfulness extends to some of the smaller brief word sketches as well as a song about his cat, “Kirby”. The videogame intro of "Lazy Eye”, contained in this song is another minor miracle that is key to the album’s success, the Chuck D recording left on an answering machine that compels Bavitz to make this hip hop with a purpose. No other rapper combines intelligence with catchy songs quite like he does. He stands alone.
Best Songs: Supercell, Rings, Molecules, TUFF
2019
Malibu Ken – 82%
Aesop Rock has always benefited from having an eccentric producer to match his manic rhyming vocabulary. El-P is his most famous previous collaborator, but here Tobacco produces the album as a perfect accomplice, providing each of the album ten songs with its own circus psychedelic atmosphere. Both artists contribute to the project resulting in a brand-new act named Malibu Ken, and The result is unlike anything I have heard before, a kind of fluorescent armadillo rapping down the interstate, upside down of course. Each methodic rhyme scheme is matched with beautifully flush sound effects, like single ready “Corn Maze’ and the translucent vocals of “Acid King”.
The slow-motion party vibe of “Tuesday” is another highlight, as the sound of the album refuses to quit. The odd topics for rap songs Aesop is famous for continues here, with ‘Churro” being a true oddity about what a vulture considers a snack, and also the down on his luck magician of “Sword Box”. And for over all trippy effects check out the chorus on the bizarre “Dog Years” a song with a slow tempo but a super sonic fast rap. I love that Aesop always tries to new use new words not usually heard in music as well, lyric sample from “1 plus 1 = 13”: “My lucky sevens only ever make it up to six/ Every three tries Satan kind of wins/ Untied shoes a liven a wild goose/ The winner is unrelenting, the kindling is fireproof.” Team ups like this fuel rock, techno and hip hop into the future, fusing all the genres into some kind of fantastic jelly. Drink it up!
Best songs: Dog Years, Tuesday, Acid King
2020
Spirit World Field Guide - 88%
This album shows Aesop rock applying what he learned from his Malibu Ken Project to his already improved production skills. “The Gates” jumps out at the beginning as a mission statement, telling us he is bursting with musical and lyrical ideas once again. At 70 minutes, this harks back to his debut Float (2000) twenty years prior, showing how much he has honed his craft but also not changed much at all. “Holy Waterfall” shows a musician who is never bored, as the song morphs and changes through each verse, remaining powerful the whole time, the same for “Button Masher” his ultimate tribute to playing video games and how they have trained him through life. “Crystal Sword” recalls his work with Cannibal Ox a bit, where “Jumping Coffin” has the kind of strange dissonance that is catchy but also grates on your brain a bit (in a good way). “Coveralls” is his best song yet, a kind of repeating catchy beat with a chorus that goes full neo soul psych and then has a bridge to match all of this; talk about a song that should have been a hit. Great music videos too, for most of these songs. Bavitz dares to make the middle of the album the best part of the album.
The album is a bit long, and there a couple songs that could have been left out as either the music doesn’t match the quality of lyrics (“Pizza Alley”) or the opposite (“Fixed and Dilated”). There are also just a couple too many inter ludes where they are short like “Dog at the Door” and “Flies” or long like opening track rant “Hello form the Spirit World” or the kind of pointless “Attaboy”. A little bit of tightening up would have made this another classic for sure to match the concise The Impossible Kid, (take the 13 - 15 best tracks??) but there is still so much to love, the irresistible menace of “Kodokushi” hidden late in the album, the Halloween sound effects of “Marble Cake”, the herky-jerky rhythms over hyper speed rapping of “Gauze”. Even “Salt” has a certain charm to it as it comes off as an old idea repolished with a new gloss. Closer “four Winds” sums things up pretty well, blending everything that came before: movie samples from obscurity, sudden stops, random breaks and pauses where you least expect it.
I guess it’s still experimental music, but it’s so dang memorable after multiple listens it’s kind of like magic. Aesop seems to not be limited by anything anymore. His vocals sound smoother than ever, he is super literate to say the least and perhaps the most verbose rapper ever but he never looses track of making songs catchy, accessible, and constantly pushes boundaries. All hip Hop could take lessons from him, and the smart ones do.
Best Songs: Coveralls, Jumping Coffin, Holy Waterfall, Kodokushi, Marble Cake
2021
Garbology - 86%
Aesop Rock is on some kind of prolific string of great hip hop releases- with 2019's collaboration Malibu Ken, 2020's self-produced double album Spirit World Field Guide (which would have made my best of list last year if I would have heard it in time) and now this, again a collaboration between producer Blockhead and himself as a rapper. I feel like we are living in a golden age of music somewhat spoiled by endless entertainment accessible to all, so it’s good to try and appreciate it when we can. The music on Garbology is based off more old school reparative beats then last years’ SWFG, and it's more concise yet still a solid 50 minutes. Aesop Rock is a person that has a lot to say but does not waste a second of your time; how rare and generous of him. He is also a top-notch producer in his own right, so to see him experiment again with an old collaborator like Blockhead shows his artistic spirit is in the right place.
I’m not gonna lie…. I think the album starts a little slow…but once it gets going, after a small intro track and some warmup songs in the mostly spoken word “Jazz Hands” and spooky vibes of “Wolf Piss”, a song called “Legerdemain” kicks in. It is many things at once, a beautiful mash of harsh poetry stew all around swirly guitar lines and clacking drumbeats, using strange lyrics and non-linear song structures marking abstract hip hop at its best. “Oh Fudge” is riddled with upright bass and random sound effects like an old Soul Coughing track; “Difficult” sounds like El-P pulled Company Flow’s 1997 Funcrusher Plus out of retirement as Blockhead brings his retro sounds up to our current year (classic lyric “folks say im difficult/ to stubborn/ that’s funny I’m real eaaaaassssy”, “Plucking sushi out of salmon”, “trying to man up / man down”, “every time an influencer offers advice/ I feel inches coming off of my life”); “Flamingo Pink” incorporates flutes and cello in some kind of magical catchy listen; “Fizz” would be a classic single on rap radio…..on Neptune.
The final closing duo of tracks sums up this renaissance period of Aesop Rock: “The Sea” holds nothing back, and his vitriol is shouted out all over anyone who listens while “Abandoned Malls” is his ballad for Covid-19 times serving as a metaphor for everything we leave behind as we humans move through time without looking back. This album stirs emotions in me, and I am glad I discovered rap music for all of the magic it can do- and then I dug even deeper. There is a flip side to all genres of music and now I see that, one is on top and one is on bottom. I see the world one way and Aesop Rock sees it quite different but now I see kinda of like him, so therefore rap music has changed my life.
2023
Integrated Tech Solutions - 94%
“I Could do this all night” Aesop Rock proclaims on this new album, and boy could he ever.
I can’t think of the last time in the last 5 years i haven’t had a Aesop Rock album on my year end list in some way (Malibu Ken (2019), Spirit World Field Guide (2020) would have made it if I heard it in time for my 2020 list, Garbology (2021), he didn’t make one last year im aware of.... the man is just one of the most prolific and consistent rappers around! He loves to release records toward the end of the year, so I had to squeeze this one in. This may be his best Record ever, other contenders would be his debut in Float (2000), the popular break through None shall Pass (2007), and his last masterwork of production The Impossible Kid (2015). But with this record he really tries a unifying theme that works: the fact that technology is advancing and eventually will take over everything and how we as a species look at that. Like say Midnight Marauders by TCQ , there are little interludes that remind us of this throughout the record, and the songs that mainly use these lyrical themes use them well ( opening song "Mindful Solutionism") as well as stories of telling how certain people in our society get left out all together- the “Aggressive Stephen” story of homelessness and the adorable “By the River “ tale of growing up around water he loves.
But mainly this is an album that shows how much Aesop Rock has grown as a musician. The music, the beats behind them, and the integration of his own producing and technology has grown by leaps and bounds. He has written hard hitting songs before, but few can match the pulsating bass of “All City Nerve Map”, the smooth haunting soul warped of “Living Curfew” (featuring Billy Woods), and the dual attack of the squeaking “Forward Comp Engine” w/ Rob Sonic. There is hardly a dull moment, everything is enhanced by entertaining sonics- “Solid Gold”, “Kyanite Toothpick”, and “Infinity Fill Goose Down” are endlessly inventive in their instrumentation. There are songs within songs, the closer “Black Snow” with first half being a great enough song with a culminating keyboard solo and the last half a more hard rocking outro; and the before mentioned “Aggressive Stephen” and “Living Curfew” which shift forms many times.
Of course, Aesop’s lyrics are on point still, the subject matter of keeping/sketching birds on “Pigeonology”, the grandmother tribute “Vititus” and the hilarious tale of meeting Mr. T as a kid in “100 ft Tall.” In “Salt and Pepper Squid” he talks about being the only rapper with no cool car, among the lyrics, “We're doing what we can considering the frame we're left with/ Waves of desperate people lighting fires and waving melee weapons/ Dog in the trash at the pizza place/ That's a good idea dog, I forgot to eat today.” In all its another triumph, and like many who have been at this for more than 20 years who have faded away, Aesop has done nothing but aged like fine wine.
Best Songs: All City Nerve Map, Living Curfew, Forward Compatibility Engine, Kyanite Toothpick