Album Review: Black Hole Superette by Aesop Rock

The American rapper is engaging and technically impressive on this wide-ranging record that finds him settling into the status of an elder statesman The verbose, sardonic stylings of Aesop Rock have long become part of the furniture in the indie rap world - whether flexing his auspiciously large vocabulary or telling wistful tales of everyday people over chunky lo-fi beats, his persona retains its smart-ass charm. Black Hole Superette is a self-produced record and the arrangements are often playfully virtuosic, with complex rhythms accompanying Aesop's tumbling flows. Movie Night is a prime example, as its dusty breakbeat and sporadic chords are the perfect foil for eccentric lyrics about animals and his creative process ("The one-man 40 thieves / leave the party wearing forty pairs of Jordan 3s").

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Aesop Rock's latest album, Black Hole Superette, brings together 18 tracks under a loosely defined theme of a convenience store. Tracks aren't focused on the idea of a store itself but rather songs relate to items, experiences, and narratives that are plucked from the shelves of Rock's mind. Some tracks lean into this more than others with Steel Wool centering around the concept of the narrator's skin being as tough as metal, delivered on top of a slow boom bap drumbeat.

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