Alopecia - Why?

Arty, indie, hip-hop poets Yoni Wolf and Doseone lay down rhymes that are easy on the ears but hard on the mind. The combination of the puzzling and ironic lyrics with the varying guitar and keyboard and industrial, yet lo-fi drum beats produces a very profound third album for Why?. The tracks 'The Vowells pt. 2' and 'The Song of the Sad Assassin' display interesting commentary on death and murder. Wolf talks monotonally about 'faking suicide in the food courts of malls for applause' and includes a line of a women threatening to 'suck the marrow out and rape your hollow bones.' The song 'Good Friday' is a simple three-string guitar riff with a sort of mumbled rap about embarrasing pervasions and sexual fantasies. The song possesses similar to those of Beck and They Might Be Giants but with a darker twist. Although most of this album is rapping, the songs 'Fatalist Palmistry' and 'These Few Presidents' are indie-pop songs that contain clever lyrics and catchy guitar and keyboard parts. One of the best lines of the album is from 'Presidents' and reads: 'Even though I haven't seen you in years, yours is the funeral I'd fly to from anywhere.' But overall the best hip-hop songs on the album are 'The Fall of Mr. Fifths' and 'A Sky for Shoeing Horeses Under.' With the quick, clever rhymes about various things including 'losing at chess' and 'pounding bricks with a fist.' The last songs on the album including 'Simeon's Dilemma' and 'By Torpedo or Crohn's' are calming, and very good concluding tracks. This album has a good chance of becoming my favorite album of the year.

(8.9/10)