BEA's Year-End List #8: Perfect Hair

Anonymous · 2015-02-03T09:54:34-05:00

Perfect Hair by Busdriver While BEA had mixed feelings about Busdriver's releases leading up to Perfect Hair, there seemed to be near universal approval for this abstract hip-hop romp. Here's some of what the regulars had to say: ...watching Busdriver return to a thoughtful package of cohesive psychosis was one of the best treats of 2014. Driver's sense of self-deprecating humor feels neither forced nor "oh hey look how clever I am", and his increasingly dynamic flow highlights his vocal talents without boasting his inherent weirdness to any uncomfortable extent. Busdriver is way off to the hip-hop leftfield but Perfect Hair is really surprisingly accessible, (partly for the excellent guest spots. e.g. You have Danny Brown's unique nuttiness balancing out the hyper-literate quirks of Driver and Aesop Rock on "Ego Death" such that the whole thing feels almost endearing (in some really weird way), which is pretty remarkable for a song that begins with Aesop asking if it is "sexier than torture".) Oh yeah and yes you did just hear Danny Brown refer to himself as the "rap Marylin Manson". Glorious. After Jhelli Beam you could say Busdriver fell in a sort of a rut as nothing the typical abstract rapper could do could save the sub-par end result in Computer Cooties and Beaus$Eros, which despite their misgivings I still sort of enjoyed at a base level. Going into Perfect Hair I was not entirely optimistic and it even took me a few listens to really appreciate the work put into the record. I still think Busdriver works best when he’s more solitary and away from guests which I understand is not a particularly popular opinion. That said, the guests (Aesop Rock, Danny Brown, Open Mike Eagle, and VerBS) do their part well and they don’t distract from the record, which is really good. Not my favorite Busdriver but this one is no slouch and worth its weight. I've never been able to get fully behind Busdriver's music - in the past, it's definitely been more a case of appreciation than adoration, able to admit that Busdriver is incredibly clever (and probably pretty fucking vital, especially in the history of alternative West Coast hip-hop), but without ever being able to tolerate him for long periods, let alone love him - but that all changed with Perfect Hair, on which he curbed his weirder aspects and tendency towards messy sprawl in order to fashion a statement much more compact and concise than anything else in his discography, and at which point I'd finally become attuned enough to weirder rap music to really learn to love his music (I have no doubt that it's definitely both of these things combined, and probably in fairly equal measure). Built on a canvas of wonky, glitchy beats (that sound something like Joker through a Brainfeeder lens), Driver basically has the most beautiful neurotic crisis hip-hop's ever seen, questioning the genre, his place in it, his relationships, and the world around him, and he emerges as a tragicomic hero to rival Yuri Nikulin, treading that same fine line between slapstick absurdity and staggering intelligence, whilst never forgetting that the most powerful weapon in any artist's armoury is sincere human emotion. And so we're treated to almost impossibly well-articulated heartbreak ("knowing that my capricious lover is a migrant bird, your absence caused quiet stirs that progressed into a violent dirge"), artistic insecurity ("I'm a decent liar, and that's a lie in itself but you knew that"), anger at the world ("the fact that this pony show's racist stirs the colloquial cake mix, and charges the homeostasis"), and a whole host of other sincere human emotions that actually make the occasionally impenetrable web of words (and believe me when I say that it's a web) far easier to approach. I know that Busdriver has managed this in the past, but it's also been tempered by some late-era-Prince-esque desire to go in as many different directions as possible on his records, often leaving me dizzy and cold, whereas here it feels like he had things to say and he said them in the best and most efficient way possible. If somebody had told me last New Year's Eve that Busdriver would make one of my favourite albums of the year, I'd have laughed in their face, but it's extremely pleasant surprises like this one that truly make music worth listening to. While a first listen left me regretting the most cringeworthy moments, the repeats do the record a lot of favours. Rich & dense.

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Skinny wrote:

Oh, and anybody who likes this should definitely check out Open Mike Eagle's Dark Comedy, which is just as good as this, the same mixture of self-deprecation and wonderfully absurd wordplay. Basically two sides of the same coin.

Yeah gonna second this and also add on Milo's A Toothpaste Suburb, which is also wonderfully absurd in a more nerdy stream-of-consciousness way. (And to a lesser extent I'd also reccomend Nocando's Jimmy The Burnout.) All of these are from Nocan's LA label "Hellfyre Club" which is pretty much one of the most interesting places in hip-hop right now imo #gettoknow

WindowAbove Profile
Iowa

I love this album and it's definitely my favorite Busdriver album. The lyrics and production are fantastic. I adore the second half in particular, as well as the "Ego Death" track, all three killed it on that. And I second the Dark Comedy recommendation.

RockyRaccoon Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me? Moderator Profile
Maryland

Skinny wrote:

Seconded. I actually liked Dark Comedy more
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MrIrrelevant wrote:

Big year for hip-hop.

Not as big as 1998, a year in which hip-hop was so big that Juvenile managed to sell over four million copies of 400 Degreez, Lauryn Hill released the album that got her nominated for ten Grammys, and DMX put out two different triple-platinum albums. Sort of puts a few indie-rock publications naming Run The Jewels 2 as their album of the year into perspective.
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mickilennial The Most Trusted Name in News Profile
Detroit

Yeah, it's pretty fantastic but I admit for me I haven't really vibed off this year's hip-hop selections (even some of the one's among the best of), but as a longtime Busdriver fan this wasn't hard for me to like. I compare it to how I originally felt about Tangent as it only grew more favorable with each approaching listen. I mean my favorite the rapper's done is obvious Roadkillovercoat which I've argue did the whole balance of accessibility and abstract quirks that it seems Perfect Hair is getting, but however people get into Busdriver doesn't concern me as long as they ultimately do appreciate him as an innovator and creator.

Precedent

RockyRaccoon wrote:

Seconded. I actually liked Dark Comedy more

This, and I like Milo more.

I don't like Busdriver much

The nerdy aspect seems a little forced to me, but maybe that's my view on the criticism of it

mickilennial The Most Trusted Name in News Profile
Detroit

Quote:

The nerdy aspect seems a little forced to me,

Busdriver is way too kindred for him to be that sort of fake and contrived, you can see it as old as footage from the early 90s that his peers even thought along these lines. If memory serves, him and Pigeon John were seen as some of the chillest spirits around.

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Precedent wrote:

This, and I like Milo more.

I don't like Busdriver much

The nerdy aspect seems a little forced to me, but maybe that's my view on the criticism of it

this confuses me seeing as Milo is infinitely more nerdy than Driver, (and honestly it doesn't feel forced in either case to me). Honestly that "nerdiness" just seems like such a natural part of his character, and is so integral to his style

Gowienczyk wrote:

I compare it to how I originally felt about Tangent as it only grew more favorable with each approaching listen. I mean my favorite the rapper's done is obvious Roadkillovercoat which I've argue did the whole balance of accessibility and abstract quirks that it seems Perfect Hair is getting, but however people get into Busdriver doesn't concern me as long as they ultimately do appreciate him as an innovator and creator.

Swap RKOC with Temporary Forever and this is basically my same sentiment

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