Hi, everyone. Coolthony Mantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new E L U C I D album, Revelator.

Yep, here we have the latest full-length LP from New York rapper extraordinaire, E L U C I D, a one-of-a-kind East Coast lyricist who has been active since the 2000s, but really rose to underground prominence as one-half of the abstract hip hop duo, Armand Hammer. It's been over 10 years now since E L U C I D crafted that first Armand Hammer album with fellow rapper Billy Woods, and it's been quite the journey since then, artistically.

I mean, both Billy and E L U C I D may not have been the most cutting edge or talked about artists in the left field of hip hop when they started working together. But over time, their efforts together have given them that credibility. I mean, 2018's Paraffin is one of the best abstract hip hop albums of the 2010s, hands down. And several years later, the duo dropped an entire album, backed with production from legendary producer The Alchemist, which really felt like watching the duo take a rite of passage of sorts, that there was finally validation that their sound had viability outside of the very experimental niche they were born out of.

And then, most recently, last year, the duo was able to push the envelope even further with their latest record, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, where they managed to craft one of the most mind-bending and out-there contemporary hip hop albums by any measure.

Now, any devoted fan of Armand Hammer is well aware of the fact that Billy Woods, outside of the context of the duo, has a very long and respected solo career. And as the duo star has risen, E L U C I D has very much been trying to build up the same for himself, too. 2016's Save Yourself was really a reintroduction of sorts to him as a solo artist, and he's been dropping a a very steady string of releases and collaborations since then, some of which run pretty experimental or instrumental. Then there are others that more or less give us the to be expected abstract hip hop vibes that he is known for. But somehow many of these records end up feeling like something is missing, in my opinion anyway. Either it's E L U C I D not venturing far out enough from what he is typically known for in Armand Hammer, or he's just really not bringing that same bold, challenging punch in a solo capacity.

However, on Revelator, which is also his Fat Possum Records debut, E L U C I D proves he's perfectly capable of waiting out into the void on his own. As the tracklist on this thing features numerous interesting, mysterious curious, odd, loosely sketched out abstract rap odysseys. Pretty much all the songs on this project subvert your normal expectations when it comes to song structure, thematic focus. I feel like the challenge with creating music along these lines a lot of the time is finding a balance between avoiding the need or the desire to scratch that pop itch, that hooky chorus itch, but still manage to come through with something that is coherent, that is cohesive, and also gratifying on some level.

I think for a good deal of this album, E L U C I D plays that angle better than he ever has, while also pushing some genre boundaries, too. Like with the opening track on the record, which was also a teaser single to it, "The World is Dog", which not only features one of E L U C I D's most impassioned and expressive vocal performances so far on a record, but the production for this one is crazy, with its driving bass lines, with its linear and crisp rock drums, all of the psychedelic effects in the mix, too. It feels like he's rapping on something from Radiohead's In Rainbows, and somehow it's just a really amazing and solid fit.

I think E L U C I D proves himself not just as a rapper on this track, but as somebody who does have a slight rock appeal, given just how gruff and shouty his voice is on this track.

I think he digs further into this same appeal on deeper cuts, like on the following "CCTV", where I feel like this song is what you would get if you took the villainous vibes from any given MF DOOM track and then brought them to a more ominous conclusion with some double bass rock drums and ringing, screaming dissonant guitars being strummed. Meanwhile, E L U C I D's rhymes on this track feel less like just traditional rapping and more like free form poetry. There's also a very eerie guest verse on this track from Kreature that goes over very well. And while some of E L U C I D's bars on this track may be a bit disjointed or esoteric, he makes his intentions clear with the final words of the song, "All power to oppressed people / Red light on the virtue signal for the come lately's / Escalate since we done waiting, take freedom."

And speaking of clarity, nowhere on this record is E L U C I D hitting you over the head harder than on "Slum of a Disregard", where he paints a picture of a Zionist slumlord's dingy moldy apartment complex and how destructive and abusive of an act it is to be renting out such a place.

Of course, there are a few other great cuts on the record that feature E L U C I D's brother in arms Billy Woods, the bassy detuned banger, "Instant Transfer", where Billy, strangely, has a delivery that's reminiscent of a rapper that's less than half his age, and yet he somehow pulls it off.

There's also "Bad Pollen", which has these woozy looping piano loops, more trippy effects, disembodied vocal samples as well. It's a very potent vibe. It's one of the strangest and most immersive tracks on the entire album by far. And E L U C I D's bars on this track just bring this string of evocative imagery, be it the tiny violins he's referencing playing with multiple fingers, or this one picture of him holding both of his kids' hands and walking strongly against the wind.

There are a few other odd and short and abrasive cuts that are thrown into the tracklist here and there as well that I feel like effectively keep me on my toes. They prevent the album from settling into a certain sound or vibe or groove for too long. In that respect, I do like how this album has a quality about it that just keeps you on edge a bit because it is a very dark, it is a very grim, it is a very unforgiving project.

However, I will say the second half of the record doesn't do this as well as the first. As the intensity starts to wane because E L U C I D starts throwing out these experiments that aren't quite panning out completely and that slows the momentum of the album down a bit as a result.

We have these down-pitched vocals on "In the Shadow of If" that I don't think go over that well. I don't see what they bring to Lucid's voice, honestly. His vocals already sound very deep and dark to begin with, presenting them in this fashion just makes them come across a bit awkward and clunky.

There's also "SKP" or some power, which I think in terms of overall vibe is just a bit too spaced out, meditative, ritualistic. I feel like it really could use a progression or a climax or a stronger endpoint.

Following this, "Hush Puppies" is really the only shorter track on the record I wish there was more, too, lyrically. I think a long and thorough exploration into Friday Fish and Lemonade is just what second half of this record needs to really pick things up a bit.

Then "14.4" feels like a few different rap ambient fusion tracks rolled into one with a weirdly aggressive guest verse from sketch 185 that tragically just feels really out of place. The rest of the song I don't mind, though, as it feels like E L U C I D is rapping to me from some drug-induced coma.

The abrupt ending on "Voice to Skull" feels thankless, honestly.

Next, "Xolo" builds up tons of tension and eventually ramps up the tempo only to just completely let that tension melt away into nothing in the last leg of the track.

And then "ZIGZAGZIG", I found to be one of the more forgettable tracks on the project in terms of instrumental, in terms of flow, in terms of overall structure. But I actually think the lyrical content of this track is great, though, and I think speaks to the existence of the album itself in a way, as the track is very much about survival, specifically surviving by zigging, zagging, moving like a target that doesn't want to get hit. Then through that, living to tell your story through your words or through your art. Obviously, if you follow the guy's career, this is E L U C I D's modus operandi.

Again, while I will say every track in the second half of this record does have its merits, does have its characteristics that are respectable or admirable or interesting, I'd be lying if I said I thought this album really managed to keep the energy and the interesting experiments up from front to back because things do really begin to trail off after a certain point.

However, I still will say I feel like this is E L U C I D's most interesting solo effort so far, which is why I'm feeling a strong 6 to a light 7 on it.

Anthony Fantano. E L U C I D. Forever.