2 Albums That Rocked my Damn Socks two years ago (pt. 1)

2007, looking back, was a pretty sweet year for pop culture: Bioshock, Portal and Call of Duty 4 revolutionized what video games were thought of, and it's rare that any year contains as good a movie as No Country For Old Men. But there were two albums that I picked up that fall and winter which totally rocked my world and sit squarely in my top 10.

The charming fellow above is mister Jaime Meline, alias El Producto, alias El-P. Producer, CEO, sometimes jazz composer and, oh yeah, a rapper. And his 2007 album was a little blossom of pure darkness called I'll Sleep When You're Dead.

Musically, the album is incredibly rich, in part thanks to the throng of cameo musicians: Cat Power's cooing hooks on "Poisenville Kids No Wins" are the most beautiful thing she's ever recorded, Camu Tao (RIP) provides a chilling vocal warble in the backbeat of "The Overly Dramatic Truth" that manages to steal the show from El's twisting lyrics of sexual regret, the Mars Volta and Trent Reznor lend touches that sound exactly like their work and fit seamlessly with El's glitchy, claustrophobic beats (did I mention he produced the entire album himself?), and the guest verse from Aesop Rock is absolutely fantastic ("three out of the five of these fuses are wired live, if I wanna survive I gotta FIND THOSE DETONATORS"). But El-P put his brain front and center here, and if the dude is gonna put himself on a slab you may as well examine it.

When the lead single from your album puts the star in Guantanamo and the opening lines of it are fell asleep late neon buzz, PTS Stress we do drugs you know it's not gonna be a happy little romp. Monsieur Producto has always been confrontational and paranoid-- his first album, Fantastic Damage, dealt with his sister's rape, his abusive stepfather, and his love of Orwell with an almost terrifying bluntness--I'll Sleep is a totally different beast. It's dark, broody, absolutely drenched in paranoia. El is a huge Philip K. Dick fan and it shows. "Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)," El-P's homage to dystopian science fiction, is a perfect example: it follows two executioners (El-P and fellow Def Jukie Cage, pictured below with El in their allotted five minutes a day of Not Being Scary as Hell) on a prison ship full of political malcontents, and is unbearably chilling.

El-P: I'm saying during the tenure of your gig, have you ever heard of prisoner who, despite the traitorous label, makes you nervous as a kid? Who may be beyond a date with the lead, maybe there's something else meant for her? A prisoner with the beauty of prisoner 247290-Zed?

Cage: Oh God, you gotta be joking, I get it she's smoking. Go get a taste, I'll hold you down for thirty, she must be purty or open. Your secret's safe with me, go on a raping spree. I gotta couple numbers of my own, just return the courtesy.

...Yeah. The world isn't just going to hell, but El-P freely admits to getting a sick thrill of the ride, or, as he bellows in the beginning of "Drive:" "Come on Ma, can I borrow the keys? My generation is carpoolin with DOOM and DISEASE!" From the purely political-- such as when he informs "Dear Sirs" that if "time flows in reverse, death becomes my birth, me fighting in your war is still, by a large margin, the least likely thing that will EVER FUCKING HAPPEN, EVER"--to the personal, such as when, in "League of Extraordinary Nobodies," he puts a laugh track to his life and admits that "I haven't even gotten to the part where it's a joke," the album is full of mistrust, paranoia, and a dark glee at the miserable fun of it all. Or, as "Smithereens" puts it, "why should I be sober when God is so clearly dusted out his mind?"

Why indeed, El?

Tune in next time to discover what the other absoltely killer album of 2007 was. Was it Sunset Rubdown's Random Spirit Lover? Yes. Yes it was.