El-P - Smithereens: Track Review

From I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Def Jux, 2007)

I was gonna do more of these track reviews last year, but you know how it is... white racism was standing in the way of my productivity. At any rate, it'll probably be a while before any notable rap albums are released, and I need an excuse to write about music more often.

"Smithereens (Stop Cryin')" is the lead single from El-P's forthcoming I'll Sleep When You're Dead, which is the long-awaited follow-up to 2002's Fantastic Damage. I was sent a copy of it ages ago by the low-bid contractors Def Jux has employed to generate publicity for the album.

I haven't read too much about this at all though, which I took to mean that a lot of his Fan Dam-era fanbase has moved on to pretending that Lil' Wayne is a great rapper or whatever.

(In this interview he did with the Onion AV Club the other day, El-P gets into what he's been up to these past five years, how Def Jux is such a tight ship, why RJD2 left to pursue a career as a singer and so on and so forth.)

Fortunately, it sounds like the new album is going to kick much ass. "Smithereens," in fact, sounds just like something off of Fan Dam. Granted, I'd like it that much more if it actually sounded better (or otherwise different) than that album, but shit. These days I'll take what I can get.

Nullus.

Click here to stream "Smithereens" courtesy of my Vox blog.

I'll Sleep When You're Dead @ Wikipedia (I see Cat Power is a featured guest on the album. Sweet.)