Yes, it’s been five years since the last Aesop Rock solo album, but that doesn’t mean he’s been in hibernation all this time. In 2009, he produced the third effort from Felt, the collaboration series between Murs and Slug. Just last year, he teamed up with Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz to form Hail Mary Mallon, and released their debut album on Rhymesayers. On top of all that, he’s produced tracks and laid down guest verses for a few artists, including Kimya Dawson, with whom a full length collaboration is forthcoming. On the flipside, there have been major changes in Aesop Rock’s life and career since he made his name in the early ‘00s. He no longer calls New York and Definitive Jux home, now residing in San Francisco and signed to Rhymesayers. Time keeps moving forward, and the really good artists grow and adapt. That’s what makes Skelethon such a unique and interesting album. It’s at once both the same old Aesop Rock we’ll all grown to love, but it’s also an artist growing, collaborating with new musicians and developing a new style and sound.

Skelethon is entirely self-produced, and it’s time that Aesop Rock starts getting his due as a producer. On this album, he manages to accomplish the difficult task of forging a new sound while still harkening back to previous works such as Hail Mary Mallon’s Are You Gonna Eat That? and his solo album, None Shall Pass. The new sound features a lot of live drums and guitar, created with help from Bay Area artists Hanni El Khatib and Nicky Fleming-Yaryan. The drums and guitar are really sharp and crisp, heavy on jazz and funk influences, ramped up with punk energy and hip hop attitude. The drums feature a lot of brush work, along with a really crisp and high-toned snare. The guitar is clean-toned, with sharp and effective riffs helping to create some unorthodox funk that at times reminds me of Tommy Guerrero. Rock then takes these elements and fleshes them out with menacing bass lines and synthesizers and turntable scratches, or in the case of “Zero Dark Thirty,” some well placed strings. This all comes together for a sound that forges a unique identity for Skelethon. This style is key to the success of a single like “ZZZ Top” or the infectious “Racing Stripes.” At other moments on the record, we get the familiar pulsating sci-fi sounds of his past, with eerie synths and deliberate, syncopated drum machine beats constructing a dark soundscape. “Fryerstarter” could have been at home on the Hail Mary Mallon album, just as “Crows 1” could have easily been at home on None Shall Pass. The beauty here, though, is that in placing those songs alongside the different sound that I’ve already discussed, we get an album that both connects to his past and points to the future. It all comes to together, and it all sounds like Aesop Rock.

As an emcee, Aesop Rock hasn’t drastically changed his delivery or his lyrical style, but you don’t fix what ain’t broken. It’s incredibly dense, full of turns of phrase with wordplay that requires repeat listens to catch his exact meaning with each line. One aspect of his lyricism that really shines on Skelethon that I’ve really come to appreciate is his ability to take simple starting points and expand them into songs that both focus on minutiae and connect them to big picture issues. A song like “Grace” was inspired by the fact that as a kid, he hated to eat his vegetables. While it literally discusses that, it also brings in the larger issues of facing adversity and the little moments that factor into growing up into an adult. “ZZZ Top” looks at how music helps kids discover and channel their rebellious nature, whether it be through hard rock, hip hop, or punk. It seems like it could be a fairly simple claim to make, but Rock makes the song effective by giving a personal voice to each kid in each verse. As an emcee, Aesop Rock is able to deliver lines slowly and deliberately when he wants to, but he can also quickly roll through lines quickly with the greatest of ease. There are times when the fast flow and dense lyrics can be a little overwhelming, but it really just gives that much more weight to the lines that he takes the time to spell out slowly. Nowhere is the clearer than the very end of the album, where on “Gopher Guts,” he states very clearly, “Today I pulled three ghost crabs out of rock and sand, where the low tide showcased a promised land. I told them ‘You will grow to be something dynamic and impressive; you are patient, you are gallant, you are festive.” Then I let them go.” It’s a very moving way to end an album.

Skelethon isn’t a landmark album in Aesop Rock’s career because it’s been several years since his last solo effort. It’s because of the great amount of work that was put into it, making it really challenging and unique, both lyrically and sonically. It stands apart from most other records out right now, and it rewards you the more you listen to it. It’s far too early to where this ranks amongst his catalogue, but it’s definitely going to complicate the discussion in years to come. Aesop Rock really pushed himself to make something special with Skelethon, and he succeeded.