3 out of 5

Label: Rhymesayers

Producer: Doomtree people (Lazerbeak, Cecil Otter, etc.)

After the humble, rough, angsty and dirty Ipecac Neat, P.O.S. got a little older and a little more political and dialed up the anger for ‘Audition’.  While it’s an incredibly grabbing album from the get-go – after an intro track and slamming bassline hits you in the face while our man introduces you to his hipster style of punk rap, leaning heavily on his Doomtree crew vibe but drumming it up with gang vocals and, hey, that dude from The Hold Steady.  It’s an absolutely unique sound, and as track two’s rattle goes into the contemplative ‘De La Souls,’ with some of P.O.S.’s smoothest and smartest lines, it’s proven that he’s not just the yelly guy but has lyrical credibility as well.

This was my first P.O.S. album, and it did the job of getting me to go through repeated, repeated spins and to make me excited to check out his other work.  But even before I got my hands on ‘Never Better’ and the nigh-flawless ‘We Don’t Even Live Here,’ ‘Audition’ fell out of my rotation.  As the album wears on, it feels a little shticky – a little like P.O.S. is trying to prove something, prove that he’s legit, or that he doesn’t care, or that you should care, or something or something.  The righteousness that keeps Never Better rather violently fresh feels forced on this album, shuffling from old school to punkier to laid back to aggressive without a feeling of flow so much as shuffling through the samples to see what he can throw at us next.  The album does show off P.O.S.’s best sides – when he’s having fun, as on ‘Bleeding Hearts Club,’ (Slug always delivers the best raps when he’s guesting) or when he’s just pissed off, as on that opening track.  It also is the only record from his Rhymesayers release that feels like a Rhymesayers release, making sure to mention the midwest, the production sounding more beat and sample based than the live / club sound of his following albums.  But that’s why it’s also the least defined, because – ha ha – it feels like it’s title, a bid to be part of the respected world of the Rhymesayers crew.  But, as I’m sure all the label heavyweights would tell him, P.O.S. is better off just being himself.

I think there are tracks on any P.O.S. album that can rope in new listeners.  But Audition is probably the most raucous one.  It’s a little too loosey goosey to be a classic, but the handful of great tracks on here, along with just getting to hear P.O.S. sharpen his skills, make it worth a listen.