Everything Must Go
El-P hating usually focuses on two things: his beats and his rhymes. Too much. Too dense. No rhythm. No flow. Oh well, here you go: Party Producto. Dance around the mushroom cloud, everybody. Built on the girders of "Cold Gettin' Dumb" and reinforced with trademark synths of doom, it's not exactly House Party, but for El-P, it's about as funky as it's gonna get. That seems to be the head Jukie's new m.o., to shake off the Blade Runner-lover tag and reach new listeners who either don't remember Fantastic Damage fondly or don't remember it at all.
The ethos is the same-- subverting the mainstream, bilious disapproval-- while served over easier to digest sonics, and other Jukies are making the transition nicely. But here, the main man's effort is listless and smug. The attraction of an El-P song has always been the aggressive energy; whether brutal or obnoxious, the fun was in the vitriol. "Everything Must Go" sacrifices that fury for a feigned swagger. Yeah, he's rhyming closer to the beat, but he doesn't sound like he likes it very much.
The ethos is the same-- subverting the mainstream, bilious disapproval-- while served over easier to digest sonics, and other Jukies are making the transition nicely. But here, the main man's effort is listless and smug. The attraction of an El-P song has always been the aggressive energy; whether brutal or obnoxious, the fun was in the vitriol. "Everything Must Go" sacrifices that fury for a feigned swagger. Yeah, he's rhyming closer to the beat, but he doesn't sound like he likes it very much.