Hello everybody! I hope you all are doing well. If anybody is wondering I am pretty happy. That is mostly because of this new Aesop Rock album: Spirit World Field Guide. HOLY FUCKING SHIT MAN! This album is AMAZING!!! Aesop Rock has been in the game for over two decades now and he is still able to make impressive albums like this. With this project, Aesop was able to make a last-minute run for album of the year.
Aesop is one of the most talented and consistent artists in the underground today. He is known for having a huge vocabulary. This man is a walking dictionary. Every Aesop Rock album has S-Tier lyricism and this album is no different. Spirit World Field Guide is exactly what it sounds like. It is a field guide for the Spirit World. The first track, “Hello From The Spirit World”, introduces the listener to the album. Aesop lets the reader know that this album will guide them through this weird, crazy, and dangerous world. This world has all kinds of weird animals, as mentioned in “Coveralls”. This place is not normal. I really like how Aesop was able to create some cool imagery with his lyrics. In the song, “Dog At The Door”, Aesop sounds paranoid as hell. He is basically narrating what is going on at the moment. He uses some onomatopoeias to help engage the listeners. I’m sure Aesop’s high school English teacher is very proud of him.
Let me not forget to mention how amazing Aesop’s rapping is. This man is a spitter. On “Crystal Sword” Aesop was flowing. He was spitting bars on top of bars on top of bars. Aesop was also rapping his ass off on “Gauze”. He is just rapping about the supplies he needs to survive, yet his flows on this track get me geeking. There’s a lot of moments throughout this album that gets me geeking. The way Aesop was riding the beat on “Holy Waterfall” was insane. This man got me doing the stink face for 3 minutes and 48 seconds with that beat. Speaking of beats, there are a lot of instrumentals that make me geek out.
The production on this album is out of this world. Like literally, a lot of these beats sound like aliens made them. “Button Masher” has these crazy electric guitar riffs. Like a lot of other tracks, the instrumental is very eerie. This song sounds like a spaceship landing on a planet. Don’t ask me how I know that.“Kodokushi” is very abrasive. This track sounds futuristic. There are also tracks that sound like they came from a video game like “The Gates” and “Jumping Coffin”. The instrumentals on each track does a great job of making the listeners feel like they are no longer on earth. You feel like you are in the Spirit World. What makes this even more impressive is that Aesop helped produce the entire album. Not only is Aesop a top tier lyrist, but he is also a top tier producer too.
This album is a little bit over an hour long. It has a total of 21 songs. I usually do not enjoy listening to albums over an hour-long, but the music off of this album is honestly jaw-dropping. This album is all killer no filler. Each trach is basically as good as the last. The weird imagery in the lyrics, impressive rapping, and out of this world production helps make this album an enjoyable listen. I really can’t emphasize this enough, Spirit World Field Guide is one of the best rap albums of the year. This album is an album of the year contender. I highly recommend it! This album is a MASTAPEACE BABY!