3 out of 5

Label: Rhymesayers

Produced by: Aesop Rock

Sidestepping some of the tonal flip-flopping of the regular version, the instrumentals for Skelethon highlights two things: how amazing the beats on this album can be; and how tightly woven to Rock’s flow they can be. Obviously the first makes having the music separated nice, but the second means that some of these songs lack impact without the rapper’s vocals; they are cool, but don’t hold up as full songs on their lonesome. This tends to be the case when the beats become more backpacky / electronic versus those that are heavier on drums or bass, so openers Leisureforce and ZZZ Top kickass all around, but Freyerstarter or Ruby ’81 are less grabbing. Because one could argue that these add texture – Ruby ’81 is kind of ambient, in a sense – that suggests this might work better if the tracks were rearranged to match that, breaking up the more aggressive stuff with the looser fare. That’s where Rock’s vocals come into play: a track like Grace is a great example of something that sounds super moody here (and is one of the best straight instrumentals), but on album, is an entirely different beast, emotionally.

The other plus/minus, mentioned above, is that I don’t think the regular album leaves much not on the table: I wasn’t really caught out by any nuance of these tracks that could maybe be missed when someone’s rhyming atop. It’s all synced up well so that the flourish happens in the spaces between the rhymes. Skelethon has an incredibly cool sound, halfway between old school Rock and Impossible Kid and beyond’s glitchiness, and it’s rewarding to revel in that; it’s a worthwhile listen. However, it’s definitely an instrumental that serves mostly just to make me want to listen to the vocal versions.