The Uncluded – Hokey Fright
welcome back folks! our record this week is the only release from Aesop Rock’s collaboration with Kimya Dawson as The Uncluded – 2013’s Hokey Fright. i mentioned a few times in earlier reviews that im already familiar with this project – im most familiar with Delicate Cycle, Superheroes, and Earthquake are the tracks that have gotten the most play in my house in the decade since i heard this in college, but i did give the full record a spin or two. either way, im v interested to see how it holds up and how experiencing this much Aesop Rock will change my view of it!
Delicate Cycle is still an undisputable masterpiece, ngl. 10/10 song by itself. i think it pairs Aes and Dawson’s styles in an extremely complementary way, the verses are sweet and poignant, and the hook digs right in and stays there. fantastic track.
i think its unsurprising that Kryptonite leads the album and Delicate Cycle comes right after – there’s a lot of off the wall, strange, and eclectic songwriting here, and those two form a very solid and almost conventional intro before TV on 10 brings in some very different sounds. i tend to prefer the songs where they blend the segments a bit more than TV on 10 does, which is very much “Dawson’s section, then transition into Aes’s verse with some interjections”.
that being said – Earthquake follows TV on 10 and follows a similar structure and a bit of an “after” to the type of events doscussed on that track, but with an extremely pleasant instrumental.
on the whole, Hokey Fright is a bit of a heavy album, focusing on loss and death, but a lot of the songs approach the topics pragmatically – Organs advocates for organ donation to help others, for example, and both Delicate Cycle and Jambi Cafe address growing up and making peace with the people that we were for the people we know now – and i really like that perspective. not that this record is without levity – Superheroes and WYHUOM, for example, are funnier, sillier experimentations, and there plenty of moments of fun or humor spread across the record.
i will say that the back half the record, post Jambi Cafe, does a bit less for me musically even as it develops on the albums theming – on the whole, thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.
faves – Delicate Cycle, Earthquake, Organs, Jambi Cafe
dislikes –
Hokey Fright – 8/10
i’ll be checking out The Impossible Kid next week – see yall then
first: Music For Earthworms | previous: Skelethon | next: The Impossible Kid
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