The Internet - Ego Death - 2015 R+B Downtempo Neo Soul - Sealed 2LP

The Internet - Ego Death


Label: Columbia – 88875118881
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album

Reissue
Country: US
Released: 30 Oct 2015
Genre: Hip Hop, Funk / Soul
Style: Contemporary R&B


Tracklist


A1 Get Away

A2 Gabby Ft. Janelle Monae

A3 Under Control

A4 Go With It Ft. Vic Mensa




B1.1 Just Sayin'

B1.2 I Tried

B2 For The World Ft. James Fauntleroy

B3 Girl




C1 Special Affair

C2 Something's Missing

C3 Partners In Crime Part Three

C4 Penthouse Cloud




D1.1 Palace Ft. Tyler, The Creator & Steve Lacy

D1.2 Curse

D2 Famous

D3 Missing You



Copyright (c) – Odd Future LLC
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Odd Future LLC
Manufactured By – Columbia Records
Distributed By – Columbia Records
Recorded At – Trap 3.0
Recorded At – Banana Beat Studio
Recorded At – 1500 Or Nothin Studios
Recorded At – Chateau Marie Studios
Mixed At – The Magic Mix Room
Mixed At – Paramount Studios
Mastered At – SST Brüggemann GmbH
Pressed By – MPO
Credits
Design – Matt Martians
Executive-Producer – Matthew Martin (5), Steve Lacy (4), Sydney Bennett
Lacquer Cut By – SST AL (tracks: C1 to D3)
Mastered By – Dave Kutch
Mastered By [Vinyl] – Kr SST* (tracks: A1 to B3)
Mixed By – Christopher Allan Smith, Jimmy Douglass, Sydney Bennett
Photography By – Jabari Jacobs
Producer [Vocal Production] – Nick Green (6)
Notes
Recorded at:
Trap 3.0
Banana Beat Studio (tracks: A4)
1500 Or Nothin Studios (tracks: B2)
Chateau Marie Studios (tracks: D2)



The renewed critical interest in soul and R&B music that sprung up around the rise of Miguel, Frank Ocean, and the like over the last four years has helped award some much-deserved prestige on the form after years of undue neglect, but the push broke as much as it fixed. The music commands more respect now, but the accolades are disproportionately showered on a boy’s club of talented, offbeat songwriters circuitously linked together under the banner of "alternative R&B"


California soul collective the Internet frequently weather the alternative R&B tag, but hopefully their new album Ego Death will help shake the descriptor. It made sense around the group’s 2011 debut Purple Naked Ladies, a quiet collaboration between Odd Future

and the band steps up and reins Feel Good’s jazz-chords-for-jazz-chords’-sake extravagance into tight, hooky hip-hop soul.


Ego Death is both spare and quietly musical, its crisp low end anchored in hip-hop as the rest of the band coolly branches out into jazz, funk, and rock. Think of it as an offspring of early neo-soul pillars like Groove Theory and Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, bedroomy but also lush and progressive. Ego Death is leagues too studiously retro to fit anyone’s idea of "alternative," but it’s still plenty odd. These songs frequently take hard, unexpected turns: Opener "Get Away" is a tribal bass and percussion stomp in the verses (twice as sinister live) but gossamer and pretty around the choruses. "Gabby"’s hip-hop strut melts into a psychedelic waltz-timed coda adorned with pretty, wordless melodies from Janelle Monáe. "Girl", the album’s Kaytranada-assisted centerpiece, hangs spectral keys over thick, heavy bass until the groove trails off into a spacey interlude.


Ego Death’s short cuts get straight to the point, while the longer ones tease out instrumental sections without coming apart at the seams.
The economic, purposeful instrumentation clears ample room to showcase Syd’s writing, and she’s got a war story here for every stage of love and loss: "Special Affair" and "Go With It" are horned-up player’s anthems ("Fuck what’s in your phone, I wanna take you home."), while "Get Away" and "Under Control" beg a suspicious lover to stop nagging about girls she’s not cheating with. "Girl" is the big syrupy cohabitation ballad, the song couples will hug and sway through at the live show, but "Partners in Crime Part Three" raises the stakes, testing our duo’s mettle with a Thelma & Louise police chase. Syd taunts an old flame on "Just Sayin/I Tried", chanting "You fucked up," but ultimately coming to peace with the break because she did everything in her power to stop it. Parsing Syd’s lyrics can feel like eavesdropping on a lover’s quarrel in a restaurant; she’s adept at tackling complex matters of the heart in a voice that’s both relatable and conversational. The Internet’s songs have always felt like scenes of salaciousness happening just out of earshot. Ego Death finally pulls us into the maelstrom.