Review Summary: While Aesop's fluid rhymes still take no prisoners through lyrical assaults on society, the album as a whole lacks the brilliantly cohesive and intent songwriting of previous releases, with a few notable exceptions.
Aesop Rock. Ian Matthias Bavitz. The two names seem to be alter-egos of one another, not unlike Clark Kent and Superman. On one hand, you have Ian, the white Boston University graduate, and on the other, you have Aesop Rock, the intellectual hip-hop superhero, brimming with swagger. For this reason, Aesop Rock's infectiously complex raps are all the more appealing - he's an anomaly within the genre. As shown throughout his discography, his incomparable flow alone can transfigure an otherwise mediocre song into something special. Unfortunately, this quality of Aesop seems to be the crutch holding up the majority of this album. Most of the tracks themselves are quite repetitive and fail to build or expand, resulting in a lack of potential from the start, regardless of the rapping quality. Nonetheless, tracks such as "Fast Cars", "Zodiaccupuncture", and "Holy Smokes" prove to be all-around superb tracks, saving the album from mediocrity.
It's not that the instrumental and structural aspects of the album sound
bad, per se - they're just extraordinarily average. Very few melodic lines are remotely catchy - let alone to a level in comparison with those on
Labor Days. Furthermore, the album seems far too inhuman in its arrangements for its own good. Each song seems to be a direct product of "cut and paste" tactics in GarageBand, or a similar music production program. This flaw is most clearly evident in "Rickety Rackety", perhaps the weakest track on the album, in which Aesop and two guest rappers trade off back and forth over monotonous beats for an antagonizing four and a half minutes. However, the entire album isn't this bad - songs such as "Fast Cars" do seem to develop and flow in a natural way - it's just wildly inconsistent. However, what
is consistent throughout is Aesop's flow, brimming with wittily offensive creativity.
From the interludes of female moaning accompanied by..."the sounds of love," for lack of a better term, in "Food, Clothes, Medicine", to the cold and calculated religion bashing festival of "Holy Smokes", Mr. Bavitz lets you know that
Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives was not intended to be the soundtrack to your grandmother's next neighborhood game of bridge. Rather, it's a clear portrait of today's youth who attempts to question all traditional values, and reflects this in a lucidly analytical fashion. Aesop not only captures the thoughts, but also the attitude. And, of course, his lyrics are as cryptic as ever - but, when studied in a literary manner, Ian proves to be quite the intellectual, masterfully interweaving numerous literary devices with philosophical revelations. Aesthetically speaking, Aesop is less afraid on this album to "conform" to a more standard rapping style and voice when appropriate or necessary, but rest assured, he rocks his trademark swagger plenty throughout the vast majority of the album.
In short, if you're looking to get into Aesop Rock, it may be in your best interest to look elsewhere (try
Labor Days, or just check out "Holy Smokes" from this album). In the context of Aesop Rock's discography as a whole, this is a fairly weak release - it just doesn't have the bravado of his other albums. But, in the grand scheme of things, this is a fun, intelligent example of modern hip-hop that is certainly worth checking out.
