The unassuming release of solace is, in a way, telling of what lies therein: a 10 minute mishmash of Earl Sweatshirt’s recorded odds and ends. But this ain’t some throwaway set. It could well be one of the heaviest things Earl has put out to date, a sparse mood piece to the dense self-containment of I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. The one-take approach of the rapping here captures Earl descending (maybe even plummeting) down his mind’s rabbit hole, stumbling over the instros with unfiltered, unfettered emotion – he audibly chokes back tears at one point, before proceeding to restart the verse in its entirety. And yet amidst all the doom and gloom, the prevailing sense of relief is palpable. Earl’s music is weighing him down; releasing this intensely personal collection to the masses is an artistic reprieve of sorts, allowing him to move on to the next one without the hefty baggage.
• Earl Sweatshirt: http://www.earlsweatshirt.com
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