Disco de Aesop Rock: “Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives [Limited]”

I just got this album and so far it's sounding pretty good. If you're like me and are hoping for a pre-Bazooka Tooth Aesop Rock, you won't find that. However, it sounds like Aesop is finding his groove with the different production style. The beats and choruses complement him more than they did in Bazooka Tooth (there are a lot less moments where he sounds goofy and weird) and the 7 tracks are pretty consistent in quality. There aren't any songs that totally blew me away on first listen, but overall I'm getting a really good vibe from this cd. For me, it's definitely a step up from the last album.

The cd also comes with a lyric book with lyrics from float to this cd. This totally justifies the price of the package.

I've always loved aesop rock and this taste of his new stuff is blowing my mind. I was a little let down by bazooka tooth, possibly because I slept on the cd and broke it before I really got into it. It seems as if Aesop's starting to flow more cleanly and evenly. These songs just float along and it's great. He tweaks his voice in different ways and it sounds good. I am really looking forward to hear more from him.

I've been a fan of Aesop rock for years. He kills it in shows, and his albums continually are more progressive than the last one. This album is more like Bazooka Tooth than any of his other EPs or LPs. The songs are lyrical bliss, each and every one of them is good. My favorites being Holy smokes and Zodiaccupunture.

Buy this album. The 80-page lyric booklet is worth it alone, but the cd is amazing as well. Aesop rock continues to push hip-hip forward, can't wait til his next release or the next time i see him live.

BUY THIS ALBUM

Another amazing release. Besides perhaps Sage Francis and Slug, no other underground hip hop artist of the past 10 years has been as brilliantly consistent as Aesop. The man has NEVER made a bad album or (to my ears) released a below-par song. Even the weakest songs on his respective releases are still more intelligent and interesting than the best song on most other hip hop releases. Personally, I prefer this EP over his last album, the too El-P-influenced "Bazooka Tooth", which was very good but nowhere near as masterful as his previous one-two punch (Float-Labor Days). This release shows that Aesop is only getting better (the lyrics are amazing as always, esp. Holy Smokes, a song that details Aesop's religious upbringing and beliefs throughout his life). The non-Blockhead songs are also good, and I was surprised at the strength of the 2 self-produced tracks here, mainly just because I wasn't blown away with his production on BT. Luckily even when the production leaves something to be desired, Aesop's flow is unsurpassable amongst anyone in the game and his lyrics are practically literature in hip hop. Definitely my fav hip hop release so far of 2005.

With his second EP-length release, Def Jux's flagship emcee - Ian Bavitz aka Aesop Rock aka Ace Rizzle - continues to subtly alter his delivery and sonic landscape while still delivering on-point lyricism and the dazzlingly abstract wordplay that other rappers (-ahem-Bizarre from D12) wish they had.

The album opens on Fast Cars, which is also the EP's first single, with the rapper again re-emphasizing his claim to the "Bazooka Tooth" moniker - and the emphasis is apt. The album continues with Aesop Rock's trend of using a newer, more electronica-influenced style of production, and this ultimately results in a very minute adjustment of his gravel-voiced flow. While I won't judge here whether this is positive or negative progress, the album is certainly more sonically meshed-together than 2003's Bazooka Tooth was.

This overall feeling of stylistic cohesion extends to lyrical content, as well. While, previously, Aes Rock fans generally had to guess at what their hip-hop hero was discussing (except for the occasional track like No Regrets, off 2001's Labor Days), tracks like "Holy Smokes," his condemnation of Catholic dogmaticism and doctrine, are more immediately focused, with an immediately discernible point. This continues what I, at least, viewed as a positive trend that started with his Def Jux releases.

As a rather MAJOR side note, "The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow" does -not- contain the lyrics to "all" of Ace Rock's albums to date, unlike what some other reviewers are claiming. It begins with Float, his LP on Mush Records, and includes neither Music for Earthworms nor Appleseed, his two completely independent, self-released albums. While this really doesn't decrease the value at all for me - in fact, while I enjoy his previous work, I consider Float and Labor Days to be when he really came into his own - This is a point for old-school Aesop Rock fans to consider.

Overall, this album package is quite useful, especially if you get one of the first 20,000 pressings (the ones with the lyric/picture book). Without The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow in the package, the EP is strictly for die-hard Aesop Rock fans. If it had included the lyrics for his older releases, a few more pictures, or more new content, this would have been a 5-star. As it is, I rate it 4.5.

Note the Second: Aesop Rock drew his graffiti tag on the first 100 albums sold through the Def Jux Pharmacy (Definitive Jux's official e-store) in silver paint marker.