We continue our journey through some of my favorite albums with this underrated masterpiece by BONES, one of my favorite rappers of all time. To me, BONES is incredible because of his attention to detail, his consistent aesthetic, his unique lyrics and messages, and of course, the plain out quality of his music. He has countless albums in general and there are only a few that I straight up dislike. SoThereWeStood is one of many I can't stop coming back to, and as probably one of his least well-known albums, I think it's a great way to introduce him to this blog.
The first thing you'll notice when listening to this album (slash EP slash mixtape) is how short it is. With 6 songs on the tracklist and only a 12 minute runtime, you'll notice that things are kept short, sweet, and to the point. With rappers especially, while consistency is key, there is a tendency for songs to feel generic and over-manufactured when you break things down to the traditional [intro -> hook -> verse -> hook -> repeat] formula.
None of that can be found here on this album.
The opening "track" is a short, haunting Greaf instrumental that sets the tone for the rest of the runtime, true to BONES fashion. (For those who don't know, Greaf is a legendary producer on the underground rap scene; besides making music with BONES for years, he produced "Without You" by Spooky Black, one of the most iconic cloud rap songs of all time.)
The rest of the songs are where the meat of this EP come in. Samples hover, wail, and moan like cursed phantoms, and the unorthodox beats rattle, shiver, and hiss between them. Melodies tease themselves and cut away before things can make sense, and songs end right when they start getting to the sweet spot.
What is a thousand, what is a million, to someone that knows the price has risen
SESH is who with me, moving too quickly, no future prices, this shit changing weekly
Death is so easy, life is so random, now he just do it, and money they hand him
from "InTheEndItsNotUpToMe"
BONES raps like a man possessed, his voice mixed to sound like a spectre growling from the shadows; once you get used to his voice and his impeccable flow on some of these, you understand what he's speaking of, and you feel that this isn't your ordinary Soundcloud rapper. He sounds disillusioned, dissatisfied with his money and budding success, proud of his status as a shadow, a nobody - and with the pride of it all, the dark swagger behind the swift songs, you feel yourself bumping your head along, agreeing with the earnestness of his message, rooting for the underdog of the underground rap game.
2014 BONES was in his prime (which I think he stays in until about the middle of 2016, though I'm willing to hear dissenting opinions about this), before he could afford a real iced out chain, before $uicideboy$ and Lil Peep and XXX went huge jumping off his sound, before he started to recycle lyrics and messages and even sounds. Everything was unique then. He was hungry. You can hear it.
From the confidence to the lyrics to the beats and even to the incomprehensible and stirring cover art, STWS stands easily to me as one of BONES strongest and most memorable projects. There are longer albums, there are albums with more bangers, there are sadder albums - and I'll definitely be talking about more of his work on here - but there's something about this project that I keep revisiting, something sincere, something sinister, something artistic. Give it a listen (or three); it's only 12 minutes long! You've got nothing to lose!
SESH
DREAM...
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