All is dense while only dark thoughts are boundless. Music made by a shut-in for shut-ins: In a paranoid, disgusted and self-reflective manner, Earl has limited the space on his second record to a square room. His thoughts are floating into black vastness. Music wise, »IDLSIDGO« has been kept minimalistic, just like the previous record. You hear the beats grumpily scratch on the rough plaster, and sometimes, the sound quality doesn’t get much better than in ordinary youtube-rips. But it’s not supposed to, either. The music is just as rugged and sly as Earl’s thoughts are, circling around the columns that horrid moods are built upon: fear, anger, reproach, doubt, distrust. The sun never shines around here. But then again: The world doesn’t come to an end, either, which is basically Earl’s biggest problem: The world keeps spinning round. It’s him who goes down, who maybe even wants to go down. Each song is a grimace, staring at the listener from a corner. It seems to threaten you in silence without ever leaving its corner, just sitting there, staring. Except for Left Brain’s bits of support, Earl has produced the whole record himself. He has chewed away everything that has annoyed him about recent years’ rap and has left nothing but a grey skeleton. It never gives the listener more than bread and water, and it’s this kind of intransigence that makes the record whole. Earl’s second record doesn’t cause a chorus of praise. It rather makes you quietly enjoy its unenjoyability.
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist
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Warner