4 out of 5

Label: Third Worlds / Harvest / Epic

Produced by: Death Grips

This is much more to the point, and thus much more enjoyable.

While the antics introducing this album – an explicit cover of an erect penis, dropping the tracks for free without their label’s permission – might seem to be pushing the anarchist brand of the band as much as the general aggressiveness of Money Store, the same affects feel more like some dudes clownin’ around when paired with the disc’s contents.  That’s not to imply that the frat boy heart that lurked ‘neath Money’s frightening Stefan Burnett stutter and Andy Morin and Zach Hill’s blast beats has returned, really, more that No Love seems unashamed to be more about the beat this time around and less about agenda, which juxtaposingly allows Burnett to relax with the verbal attacks and deliver some interesting – if cryptic – lyrics.  His delivery is still plenty energetic, thankfully, but the espousing and stuttering spew seem more honest, more in sync with what’s being said and supported by the music.  Which applies a similar rhetoric: The beats have been peeled back, leaning more on trilling bleeps and bloops then an earth-shattering low-end, and yet taking away the bombast lets the tunes successfully stand out as they should.

Deep Web is a much more compelling experience for these changes, versus the unevenness of Money Store, and lets us find the goofy, “fuck it” personality at the album’s heart, which might have one taking silly photos of their wee.  More nuanced expressions of this persona are teased, though, like on album opener Come Up and Get Me, with its bare minimum beat, or Lock Your Doors’ electro stylings, which give us evidence of some greater Grips album yet to come.