Customer Reviews

Oaklandazulasylum

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

the lyrics on this album are amazing, almost comparable to the eels or beck. With a hip-hop style singing crossed with indie guitar reinforcement this band makes the best of both.
best put by the song "bad entropy";

these are songs to listen to after im dead;
when old women start wearing their hair grey;
these are songs to help an ant to find its shadow;
songs to bump in your cruser 2016, top down,
hair blowing in the absence of air.

I didn't think Why? had it in him to be a member of Anticon and then pass for an indie rock artist. But then I would be wrong, because he released an indie rock album and it's actually pretty damn good.

The album starts with "Ferris Wheel", which starts with sparse guitar picking then shortly picks up when Why? begins to sing. Soon thereafter some horns begin playing and you can clearly note the slight inspiration Neutral Milk Hotel had on Why?'s direction. It's one of the better songs on the album. "Cold Lunch ([...] Remix)" is a really good song, but will lead me to my first complaint of this album. A lot of the songs are short (half the songs are less than 2:30 long, which 5 of them are less than 2 minutes long). This song, for example, is 1:36 long. It's a good song that I wish could have been maybe a minute longer, but nevertheless good.

Next is "America Afterschool", which leads me to my second complaint of the album. If one were to question Why?'s lyrics as being trite and meaningless, often times I don't think I could adequately defend Why? because I'm often dumbfounded by what he's expressing. But whatever, it's a good song. Now I'll skip ahead to "Early Whitney", the marvel of the album. This song is beautiful and on constant repeat on my iPod. I would love to hear Why? release more accessible songs like this, which he is supposedly doing on a new album.

"Shirtless, Sheetless, And" and "Women Eye, "No"" are funny songs and add to the album pretty well. "Seventeen" is my second favorite track of the album. It has a really good melody and hip hop beat.

This album is great and I'd highly recommend it. But if you have a chance to see him live, I suggest you also (or instead if you're limited on purchases) to buy his tour only album "Almost Live From Anna's Cabin". It's a live album and it has a lot of the songs from this album that sound better "live" (and some that don't necessarily) plus a few other songs he released prior and afterwards.

This record is full of haunting melodies and heart-felt poetry. Lead singer Yoni Wolf holds nothing back in this Anticon gem. A great find for anyone who can appreciate alternative rap.

Whoa...
Thats what i first thought when i listened to Why? How can you mix rap and Indie, but still come out listenable.....yeah...i would say that this is one of the better albums this year. Its very different, but in the best way. Listen

this is definately one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time. everytime i listen i hear something new. this album is insanely good to say the least. just put this in and zone out. the lyrics: it seems like why? doesn't care about them, it seems like a statement against lyrics, like why write exceptional lyrics? what does that matter? just shut up and make amazing music, as why? has done here.

This album is passable. But it feels more like the "never released" songs that got dumped from making Early Whitney than it's own album. This was the beginning of Why? turning awful, his latest album has dropped all the rap, all the punk and adopted more pop, so it's now indie-pop... Good things never last.

Ok cd. Not my favorite of the Anticon stuff. My only problem really with it is that it seems to be too contrived. Like Why? is trying to hard to be abstract and odd and it's coming off that way. He doesn't have the loose feeling in the songs like it's just coming off of his head. It seems like he's sitting there reading lyrics off the paper. But, it's still worth owning and listening to. Maybe I'm just jaded by past releases from the crew. The packaging is really interesting which to me is just as important as the music, well almost.