4 out of 5

Produced by: P.O.S., Various

Label: Rhymesayers

Aw, I miss early POS.  Dude was so scrappy, scuffling together loose beats and rambling rhymes with his punk rock references and Doomtree guest list.  Interestingly, after a string of succesaively tighter albums, POS would return to Ipecac’s looser flow for Chill, Buddy, but the years of experience are absolutely audible: it’s a much more nuanced album.

But, for that same reason, it can be fun to turn back the clocks before POS ruled the world and Doomtree became especially incestuous; before kids made him serious and politics made him angry; when “nuance” was superseded by the energy of youth.  Ipecac Neat is toe-tapping fun end to end – and I wouldn’t necessarily apply “fun” to the entirety of any other POS disc – though, much like a live set, some of the disc’s off-the-cuff zeitgeist necessitates a warm up, and maybe some backup: The opening two cuts are really backpacky, and the album doesn’t really drop until the first guest spot with Crescent Moon on Hunger Pains Three (coincidentally, Crescent guests on the disc’s other standout, Dead Music…), but once POS (or our ears) get a sense for the kind of beats and structure that partnership provides, the rest of the album just sings, staying closer to hip-hop beats than followup Audition but shearing things to a raw edge with that punk rock thang.

It’s damned catchy stuff, and an indicator of how naturally skilled POS seems to have always been: even when he’s trying on a more down to earth persona, and handling the production primarily himself, he kills.