Review Summary: An atmosphere that is one of an esoteric flow, going from all the different explored sounds intermittently and without any compromise. A visceral, noisy affair that never lets up even in the most subdued of moments.
If you remember back when Inanimate Sensation dropped, I finally spoke about my feelings on the insanely divisive feedback surrounding Death Grips, and in my opinion, any good band is one that can create such a ridiculous seething mass of both hate and awe and temper it to create one of the most hilarious and most ridiculous presences in the music world. The result of this also caused some of the fans of the band's previous works to go on to fall into this same divisive abyss, not all would come out liking what would happen next and so on and so forth, and that's okay.
A band that managed to continuously reinvent their sound so that they weren't just The Money Store or Exmilitary, even, released 6 times over, managed to attract so much positive and negative interest in such a short time that it's honestly quite admirable. No matter what you think of them, Death Grips have been an almost incomparable force in the music industry period, it's kinda hard to deny that.
In general though, I just want to talk about Jenny Death, or The Powers That B in general, but Jenny Death is of course the focus of it. Jenny Death is apparently the final album that Death Grips will release, even if they've said "we might make more" which is exactly what I ***ing expected from Death Grips at this point after being the biggest cockteases out of Sacramento. It's the second part of their double album The Powers That B, the first part was Niggas on the moon, which came out almost an entire year earlier, to put it into perspective this is an awful lot of hype for a second part of a double album.
The hype was exacerbated with the band announced with writing on a napkin that they had broken up but they'd still release Jenny Death, and later on, releasing Inanimate Sensation, and even after that making an entirely instrumental album that spelled out "JENNY DEATH WHEN" with the names of the tracks ordered. Death Grips are, if nothing else, marketing geniuses in the most assbackwards of ways.
And later on we got track sneak peeks, counting Inanimate Sensation of course, distance between release notwithstanding. Inanimate Sensation showed a continuation of the sound explored on Niggas on the moon but with a visceral Exmilitary and No Love Deep Web esque edge to it, On GP showcased a more downtempo, personal and rock-based sound, and The Powers That B was easily the absolute heaviest Death Grips has ever gone, with what sounds like a tornado of exploding synths whenever the chorus hits, and mother***er this does make me noided every time I hear it for lack of a better term.
So when Jenny Death dropped, or, leaked as it were. You can imagine that me, a longtime fan of the band quite enamoured in their antics was quite excited to finally hear what he had been waiting for, and you'd be entirely correct. I found it quite difficult to not be incredibly excited, I was already excited because To Pimp A Butterfly had dropped the same week and that album was ***ing fantastic, so that week alone was perfect for me.
Musically? Typical Death Grips, essentially, but there have been quite a few changes, notably so are the addition of heavy rock based guitar, often rooted in the chorus of Why A Bitch Gotta Lie, Centuries of Damn, or the majority of melancholic album closer - DG 2.0 doesn't exist - On GP.
Jenny Death actually feels like an anachronic journey of the entire discography of Death Grips, there are smatterings of Exmilitary, Money Store, No Love Deep Web, Government Plates and Niggas on the moon all over the place, sometimes even in the same ***ing song, and that's actually quite fantastic.
If there's ever been an issue I've had with Death Grips, it's been that they have always been pretty inconsistent from a certain point. After TMS, when NLDW dropped the albums that followed, there were times when songs simply felt divorced from the atmosphere the album they were on was trying to create, and while this could even be seen as some way of creating extra charm, from a musical standpoint it isn't the greatest thing. But, that issue has been fixed for me, as the atmosphere here seems to be one of an esoteric flow, going from all the different explored sounds intermittently and without any compromise. A visceral, noisy affair that never lets up even in the most subdued of moments.
Death Grips may or may not continue, depending on what you choose to believe, but On GP remains a perfect swan song in the most literal sense for this band. The album too, in a less literal sense, which is fantastic, the hype in my opinion was well deserved and well rewarded for fans of the band.
Recommended Tracks:
Inanimate Sensation
Why A Bitch Gotta Lie
Centuries Of Damn
Beyond Alive
On GP
