I’ve been taking Astronautalis for granted. You see, when I was working at KVRX at UT, he was playing in Austin every weekend. He even played a fundraiser or two for us. After a while, I stopped paying attention. This is entirely my own fault. However, a little less than a year ago, I caught Astronautalis opening for Doomtree on tour, and I was quickly reminded what a talented, dynamic performer he is. I’ve caught him several times since, including my favorite SXSW moment of 2011, his freestyle tribute to Nate Dogg at Flamingo Cantina. All this comes in time for what is not only his strongest album to date, but one of the strongest releases of the year.

While Astronautalis cut his chops on the battle circuit, that’s only been one facet of his musical vocabulary. With a delivery that can go from a Tom Waits-esque growl to a Cat Stevens-ish croon, and a love for music of all genres, Astronautalis has gone to form one of the most unique hybridized sounds I’ve come across. Sprinkle in some gangsta rap, indie rock, folk, electro-pop, and punk, mix with a lyricist who is just as likely to drop a Civil War reference as he is to talk about current events or his own personal life, and you get this Florida/Texas/Minnesota artist.

It’s the intersection of storytelling and intriguing intersection of sounds that makes This Is Our Science an album that I can’t stop listening to. It makes sense that there are contributions from the punk/hip-hop collective Doomtree, including Sims, P.O.S. (who will be releasing a collaborative effort with Astronautalis soon under the name Four Fists), Cecil Otter, and Lazerbeak. He also reaches out to some other contributors, such as Tegan Quin from Tegan & Sara, Midlake, Riverboat Gamblers, and Alias. On this album, you can find yourself shouting along to a punk-inspired chorus, marveling at some rapid fire rhymes, or being drawn into some personal confessions. It all flows together well because these are all honest portrayals of Astronautalis’ personality.

While the intersection of genres is really interesting, the album really comes together through Astronautalis’ skills as a story teller combined with his ability to reach an audience as a performer who directly engages with them. On the title track, he tells the story of a friend who feels the need to carry a gun, and the reasoning and implications behind it. Later in the song, he asks his listeners to “Put up your fingertips if you’re living your life exactly the way that you wished/For the rest of us with our hands on our hips our work is never done - we are Sisyphus,” referencing the Greek myth in which Sisyphus was doomed to the task of eternally pushing a boulder up a hill. On the song “Dimitri Mendelev,” a song named after the inventor of the periodic table, which features some of Alias’ strongest work, Astronautlis works an extended metaphor with playing cards that works really well, since it’s also placed alongside sing-along sections of self-empowerment where Astronautalis declares “Won’t be held back, won’t tied up, won’t be pinned down!” Then you have a song like “Secrets on Our Lips,” which is a piano ballad that relays the intimate tale of a short-lived affair that carried a lot of emotional weight. On first listen I wasn’t sure what to make of it in the context of the album, but it’s such an honest and moving song and provides yet another dimension to the album, that I think it was a bold choice that really paid off.

There are few artists with as rich a musical vocabulary and array of interests as Astronautalis, with hip hop battle crowns and a love for American history and literature. It all comes together on This Is Our Science. This is an album that has so much to offer that you can listen to it on repeat and still be rewarded by new discoveries.