Reviews
El-P
I'll Sleep When You're Dead
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2007-05-12
It's been five damn years El. Sure you had High Water and Collecting the Kid, but now you can say that you have dropped a real follow-up to Fantastic Damage.
El-p's 'hiatus' doesn't seem to have been spent well. I'll Sleep When You're Dead is a good album in most respects, but it lacks a lot of qualities that made FanDam so intriguing and immediate.
You see, it was FanDam, with The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox (which El-P produced), that showed me that poignant, respectable and INTERESTING things were happening in hip-hop. Sadly, I was too young to appreciate Company Flow, so it was FanDam that sunk its hooks into me. From El-p's dystopian, cyber-punk inspired beats and organic drumming to his straight-up honest and emotional delivery of his lyrics (see 'Stepfather Factory', or Mr Lif's 'Post Mortem'), it provided a real window into the true alternative to covetous, machismo mainstream hip hop.
Though I can see ISWYD finding El a new hoard of potential fans (in part, due to the seemingly-odd but understandable guest appearances like Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor), I can't find the same excitement in ISWYD that I felt for FanDam.
That being said, this isn't a bad album by any means. To someone who is first being introduced to the Def Jux records catalog, ISWYD is a good enough starting point.
The first track, 'Tasmanian Pain Coaster', starts off right. John Carpenter-esque horror-fi effects provide the background as El-P drops his first few lines. 'Bumped into this kid I knew, he would often walk strange/ so i ignored the blood on his laces so this cat could save face.' Once the beats kick in full-force, you can't help but be grabbed on the shoulder and jostled around. As the song breaks down and begins to fade out, repeated mumblings by some voice soaked in effects, to the extent of sounding like Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, is heard over some real moderate guitar play. Oh wait, that solo was played by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the guitar god of Mars Volta? Oh... wow. Please, if you have not heard Rodriguez-Lopez before, don't take this song as the gospel on his dexterity. Do yourself a favor and check out some of the choice cuts on his solo albums.
As the album progresses El-P gives us an Orwellian tour through how he sees Brooklyn and the world around. But El's just seems tired. His flows are for the most part unemotional and even digresses to monotonous at certain points. His beats, though still excellent compared to competitors, seem like medicore offerings after what can be heard on FanDam, Cold Vein, or Aesop Rock's Bazooka Tooth. The expected pounding-beat approach to the fifth track, 'Drive', bring back fond memories of 'We're Famous' or 'Lazerface's Warning' but is wounded by the addition of Kanye West-type high-pitch voice samples. Hasn't that gotten old yet?!
'Run the Numbers' is what I consider to be the epoch of the album. The beats are of a comparable quality as those on FanDam, and the cameo by Aesop Rock brings back fond memories. But even Aesop doesn't seem to be trying to hard on here.
'Flyentology' will probably be the flagship track off the album. El maintains a smooth flow, which is nice because for the rest of the album he barely deviates from a derivative, sloppy delivery that makes me worry each line may be followed by the line "this is why I'm hot". As far as the beats - It's El-P and Trent Reznor, I'm sure you can figure that one out. It's a combination thats about as reasonable and easy to enjoy as 2 + 2 = 4. Rob Sonic is on it too but his contribution is forgettable at best.
I don't mean to be hard on the dude. This will probably be one of the better hip hop albums of this year, it's just that I know El-Producto can do better and I feel almost offended by his attempt to offer this as the true follow-up to FanDam. I don't think this was worth waiting five years for. A thirtysomething pushing 9/11 paranoia in a mediocre package is pretty dated and ISWYD is just more reason for me to think that Def Jux records may have already expired it's heyday (the last REAL good album was Bazooka Tooth, but Cage's Hell's Winter was pretty good too).
I was expecting this to be a 9+ album.
Score: 7
- Michael Bulko