BONES along with his collective Seshollowaterboyz - led the way for Cloud Rap's transition into a more Emo Rap adjacent sound during the early 2010s. It spans 27 tracks, most of them being around two minutes long.
After a short interlude, JonathanTaylorThomas immediately shows all this tape's strengths. Bones' rapping is slow but steady, having a deadpan energy that has become a staple across his music. He also often sings on this, heard on the sappy WakingUpCrying or cheesy yet fun RotatingBed.
I'm mixed on his singing on this tape, it often feels unnecessary however it helps with song diversity. The production on this is varied, mainly switching between dreamier beats to vaporwave-influenced ones. The uniting element is the cold, at times dark mood presented here coupled with Bones' simple yet effective rapping. Bars that could otherwise be too tryhard if said by someone else, he delivers with enough confidence to make them work. I wish there were more emotive cuts that ditch the melodramatic singing like Cut, they complement the harder songs a lot instead of feeling unnecessary. The best songs here are easily the ones with darker Vaportrap beats such as FlashFloodWatch - a style of production that immensely enhances his rapping. Alongside the posse of usual producers there's also a few songs produced by notable Vaporwave artists like the prolific Luxury Elite, Contact Lens and Infinity Frequencies. Really the biggest problem of this tape aren't the individual tracks, just the sequencing feeling janky at times because of the constant mood shifts. But wow, many of these tracks are just amazing on their own. The contrast of tones is what makes this such an interesting, deeply layered mixtape. With it do come some issues as mentioned, but it isn't massively detrimental to the tape's quality. Through the frigid indifference emotions sometimes come to the music's surface, keeping it interesting rather than monotonous.
PaidProgramming could benefit from a trimmed and smoothed out tracklist - but as it stands it's still a highlight in Bones' discography. He's a great rapper and an okay singer, collaborating with a team of producers that make his vision complete. It's my favorite of his tapes from 2013, despite it being the 8th one he released that year. Three years later he released this tape's sequel, which I haven't listened to yet but will eventually.
8/10
See also: Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis
- kreyzi
No comments:
Post a Comment