Logorrhea is defined as the excess flow of words. This word, logorrhea, has been commonly used to define the rhyme schemes Aesop Rock uses. My response to that is: whatever. True, as an artist, he is loquacious. Yet, much of rhymes have plenty of meaning. The problem is that people look for accessibility. Aesop Rock doesn’t care for all of that. He rather be descriptive indirectly than become “easily understood”. Skelethon is such an album: heavy on the words, meaning, and aesthetically appealing production.

 

Lyrically, Aesop runs the gamut (as usual). Mainly, he works to compose descriptive dioramas that can only be deciphered with dedication. “ZZZ Top” is a perfect example of this. Within three different verses, he gives vivid stories of outcasts that scribe a name with a “Z”. “Ruby ‘81” serves as a tome for a situation where the family pet plays savior. “Fryerstarter” relishes over visuals of working in a donut shop. Aesop’s rhymes works to cover the gamut of everyday human interaction.

 

The production, in all respects, is astounding if you really enjoy Aesop’s type of music. Mainly, you will be in an instrumental rock/hip hop hybrid influenced heaven. Between the scratches that occur on both “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Crows 2” and the drum and bass heavy instrumentals of “Tetra”, the music remains both moody and relentless. Even songs like “Dokken Rules” keeps it hip hop with its instrumentation and sampled vocals. This album is very well produced to say the least.

 

Skelethon is just a demonstration of Aesop Rock at his best. While not conceptually tight like previous work (i.e. Labor Days), his lyricism is still as sharp. Also, the self-produced music works almost perfectly to display the emotion, ideas, and atmosphere that Aesop wanted to create. This may/may not be his greatest work to date (depending upon opinion). Also, Aesop Rock is one the biggest acquired tastes around. Still, it is safe to say that this is one of the better, if not best, releases for hip hop this year.