Initial thoughts
I received Lazerbeak's first debut full-length release in the mail today. I'm excited about it and decided to post some initial thoughts while first ingestion takes place. This will be short, unless I totally get side-tracked into indulgent eargasmic bliss.
Legend Recognize Legend
Lazerbeak is a risk-taker, caught-up in the supreme domination of the indie hip-hop scene (doomtree), indie rock scene (Plastic Constellations) and pretty much everything in-between. His personal music tastes range from gangster rap to classic 80's ridiculousness to soul and funk to infinity and beyond. So obviously a solo record would derive from those tastes, combined with that "lava banger" signature Beak sound and followed by well-placed pummeling kicks to the face. So yeah, it does all that. From the "lava banger" eargasms of Land's End, the climactic build of Let it Go, the Nina Simone sample-fronted Dessa collaboration no beauty is Bound, Wild Life's incredible-hypno-cathartic-fall-break (also, unplaceable melodic-childhood-memory-recall-placement), you know what, this album is all-out fantastic. Fuck the abstract play-by-play. If you didn't pre-order it, do yourself a favor and buy it next Tuesday.
Legend Recognize Layers
Densely looped-out melodies, facial kicks, breakdowns, angelic harmonies, hypnotic rhythmic pulse, cat scratch fevered cough, bucket drum lung-kicks, key velvet headphone lava, bangers and mash, shift change, steel kick brace, face your death, hills and valleys beyond broken hearts - yeah they all make up this beast. Lyrically, being aged in the late twenties myself, I can totally relate to the mortality ideas/tones/words/truth presented here. Over the past few years I've begun pondering what the hell I'm doing with my life and always finding goals to set and accomplish. These are things you're not as concerned with during high school and into college - or at least not remotely in the same sense or past-and-future choice implications. Life wholly recognized, conscious. Only after those early days are behind do you start really asking what it all means, where you're going and begin truly wrestling with the universe. Sometimes I'll lay awake at night struggling with the fact that my thoughts won't even exist forever, let alone my physical self, friends, family. It's easy to talk about but hard to grip or come to terms with. I suppose that all eases with age, gets worse and then better, cyclical. It's a tough road and wholly frightening being on the low end of the journey.
If you really want to float past the fields and canyons, let the walls cave in. [Land's End]
When the time is right to raise some children. We will then. Like a roaring noise, filled with all the joy this life allows. [Land's End]
Blame it on the rolling hills, I can see. I can see. sifting through the roaming years I can see, I concede. You'll leave. [Bound]
Legend Recognize Lazerbeak
Beak, you've outdone yourself. Thank you for this. Definite contender for album of the year.
Personal favorite highlights:
Land's End, Let it Go, Bound, Pearly Gates and Tempest
By the way Beak, if you read this - I dig Drake's album too. Thanks for the Black Milk tip and peep that Bilal - shit is real.
p.s. - "Let It Go" video (non-spoiler) is classic.
