If there was any doubt that Anti-Pop wasn’t going to hit hard on their long-awaited reunion album, they don’t waste any time answering your questions. The opening track, “Lay Me Down,” opens up with some turn-up-the-volume metal guitar shredding, only to drop out and have some sinister slow drums start pulsing as M. Sayyid begins to lay it down. It’s been six years since they last released an album together, and they’ve released albums as solo artists and side projects, but nothing came close to what they create when all four members are playing off and challenging each other. It was said that in their first go round that they were well ahead of their time. Listening to flourescent black, I think I can say they are still ahead of everyone else. They just keep pushing each other and the listener to challenge all notions of what hip hop and music in general can and should sound like. Just listen to a song like “Timpani,” and you’ll get an understanding as to what I’m talking about. They’re incorporating dancehall, house, dub, hip hop, and all sorts of other random music here and there in a way that doesn’t sound like anything else happening right now. They are also one of the few groups bold enough to be able to sample El-P and even get away with it. Abstract lyricism matches up with the synthesizers, hard drum hits, and sci-fi visions of the album. The award of “Creepiest Song on the Record,” easily goes to “The Solution,” a song about a robot take over complete with digitized vocals. It hits a little too close to a personal fear of mine. Another fear of mine, though, is that when a group takes off five plus years before reuniting, they might possibly lose touch of what made them sound great in the first place, or worse yet, they could just sound dated. Fortunately, Anti-pop has neither of those problems. They sound as progressive and challenging, yet enjoyable, as they ever have. Or, as Bean so perfectly puts it - “The Abstract Rat Pack is back.”