The Uncluded

• Hokey Fright [Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2013] A

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Hokey Fright [Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2013]
In a year when someone named Binki Shapiro ain't Kimya Dawson, someone named Aesop Rock will wash Adam Green right out of your head. Protesting the decline of the laundromat and promoting the rise of organ donation, ecumenicizing "Superheroes" with "Fluffernutter/Shawarma/Reuben/Cuban" and eulogizing the friend of a friend who justified Dawson's fear of flying, it's the return of the deeply goofy male-female duet. The tunes are Dawson's because Ae-Rock doesn't do tunes, but his beats beef up those tunes just like his gruff, clotted flow beefs up her itty-bitty soprano. Most important, her poetic confessionals function as glosses on his rhymes, which are a touch more straightforward in any case. True, they bog down into his big think for a spell. But all is redeemed by a spirited finale designed to jar the downhearted from facing life, as they put it, tits up. A

See Also

• Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson Showcase Their Strengths [2013-05-20]