Album Review: Live Laugh Love by Earl Sweatshirt

Despite the guise of the shock-value antics and juvenile gags associated with his earliest work, there was never a time when his verses weren't shining examples of technical proficiency. He's consistently proven himself among the all-time great writers and hip-hop history, and it's only gotten better and more substantive as he's matured. With his latest release, the MC's kaleidoscopic blend of multisyllabic rhyme schemes and hazy, sporadically chopped jazz and soul samples has been refined to perfection.

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Earl Sweatshirt, in recent years, has come to occupy a space not unlike that of Elliott Smith. If it's fair to anoint Smith the "patron saint of sad boys," as a piece by Darran Anderson in tQ earlier this year so aptly did, it's helpful to think of the ex-Odd Future member (AKA Thebe Kgositsile) as a reluctant prophet for the wounded and weary - an irreverent yet deeply perceptive oracle who continues to capture a generation of chronically online depressives with his grim clarity. Like Smith, evangelists are drawn to Sweatshirt for the unadulterated intimacy present in his music.

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Earl Sweatshirt's fifth studio album, Live Laugh Love, is a riff on the formula the rapper has been tweaking over the course of his last few releases. It's laidback, vibe-y, and sample-heavy, with cryptic, free-associative lyrics that, clipped to short lengths, ring like mantras. Live Laugh Love's songs, most of which clock in at under two minutes, consist of a loop that more or less fades in and out.

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Perhaps the definitive art-pop figure of the modern era, Earl Sweatshirt's singular sound is built around dense word play, unique idiosyncrasies, and a desire for expression that moves from the opaque to crystal clarity. A recent viral tweet held that Earl and frequent co-conspirator the Alchemist had essentially made the same album each time for over a decade. Firstly, what's wrong with that? It's called consistency! Secondly, peering into his work for longer than 30 seconds reveals all manner of thorough-fares, one way streets, and roads seldom travelled - he's always different, always the same.

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