Hi, everyone. Livethony Laughtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Earl Sweatshirt album, Live Laugh Love.

Here we have the fifth full-length commercial LP from rapper and songwriter Mr. Earl Sweatshirt, a man who is the closest thing I would say that we have right now to a modern hip hop folk hero. Because sure, you could categorize Earl as one of many underground rappers operating out there today, but that would not be his full story. Even when rewinding to his beginnings in the music collective, Odd Future, you still wouldn't get the full picture.

Because Earl was one of many names to come out of that greater Odd Future universe. And yet he hasn't evolved to become the mainstream-ready conceptualist that Tyler, the Creator is, nor did he reset the R&B landscape with just a couple of records just like Frank Ocean did.

So yeah, while Earl is not necessarily probably the biggest name to have come out of Odd Future, the fans that he did connect with have a bond with him and his music that has proven to be just so deeply profound as it generates not just an interest in his music, but his own personal lore, too. Because hardcore fans are very intimately aware of the couple of years he spent in Samoa as Odd Future was becoming a cultural force to be reckoned with. They're also aware, at least on some level through his art, of the complicated relationship he has with his father, his own personal struggles with depression as detailed on records like I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside, as well as the very potent Some Rap Songs.

These are also projects that very much helped set the tone for the modern abstract hip hop landscape as we know it today. Also created this understanding and expectation that Earl's writing style had this very dark but relatable quality to it that gave listeners not just insight into his emotions, but their own, too. You could say there's a certain familiarity you gain by listening to Earl's music that you don't necessarily get from artists whose writing is a lot more impersonal by comparison.

Add to that the fact that Earl came to us in his career, really in the prime of his youth, and he has since grown up before our eyes and ears along his discography into a 30-year-old man.

So Live Laugh Love is not just a cheeky title of sorts. It's actually an announcement, a message, statement that we are in the midst of a new chapter of Earl's life, one that sees him in better spirits. And he displays that through what I would call a lot of familiar Earl-isms: brief run times for the songs, super loop-heavy production, very loose and casual flows, and also a devotion to the lofi aesthetics that some of his biggest influences pioneered in the underground hip hop like MF Doom and J Dilla.

So again, this record in a lot of ways is the same old Earl, but we hear him having more positive things to build on and wrap about this time around, as he is now married and a father of two. On the opening track, we can hear Earl spitting bars through an audible smile with some wild and psychedelic funk chops on the instrumental, too. This song doesn't just have a chipper energy to it. It also tries to encourage the audience to get on the same page, not only with food for thought bars about how Earl essentially is on his own path in life, working at his own pace. But also the outro monologue on the track serves as a reminder for fans to find more satisfaction in finding the things you need in life as opposed to chasing after thrills.

The next track, "Forge", follows with a mix of dramatic drum fills, mystical arpeggios, what sounds like some reggae touches coming through in the guitar, too. It's quite the combination. And with a bit of delay on his voice, Earl sounds absolutely godly as he drops a lot of abstract poetry about overcoming adversity and working through moments where your plans are thrown off.

After this, the vibe of the track "Infatuation" is a lot more easygoing with some ritzy piano samples and alluring croons that are operating in different channels of the mix, leaving Earl to take up pretty much all the space in the center. Lyrically, we get a lot of confident wordplay on this track that leaves Earl sounding a bit more charismatic than usual: "Gleaning what I can from what I have amassed / The space time continuum bend / I'm sticking with the simple plans / I am just a man."

The vibe of "Gamma" is even lighter with some saucy key and string combos, a metallic ping in the mix as well. A lot of the song boils down to Earl just accepting the need for love in his life and speaks to this mental shift he's undergone since his youth, where he just wanted to remain in the dark, in the shade, alone.

I feel like this mood change is ushered in not just here, but on a host of other tracks throughout the album, where he's working a lot of sound effects into the mix that back up his words throughout a lot of these verses. After this, we have some strangely melodic flows on the track "Well Done" that are so catchy that I wish the song was just a tad longer. One of the few moments on this record where Earl's brevity comes back around to bite him.

As long as I'm complaining, I have to mention the song "Live", which I wish didn't sound like Earl was recording his vocals on a gamer headset. Still, some of the most heartfelt bars on the entire project land on this song, most notably lines about raising his son and staying close to his friends until maybe when it doesn't seem like it makes so much sense to. My main issue with this track, though, is that it does trail off performance-wise in the second half in such a way to where I'm just wondering, where's the stamina?

Thankfully, Earl sounds a lot more locked in over the regal and grim orchestration samples on "Static", to the point where he sounds like a much younger version of himself, frankly.

Then through the final leg of this a relatively brief project, Earl starts going the distance again with some more tracks in this tracklist, like with the almost three-minute "Crisco", which features some ghostly vocal harmonies, icy synth touches, and one of my favorite rhyme schemes on the entire record as well, not only because it's a very interesting series of rhymes to so consistently hit, but there's a relentlessness to it, too, that I really appreciate. Also, again, more words on Earl's growth since he was younger and just how his mindset has changed over the years. "They knew she was off when I was staying silent / Stayed inside / I'm saying sorry for the pain I caused / God, no, my heart, and I'm out here trying to change the course / I'm working on it."

"Tourmaline" is another cut that is almost taking the three-minute mark. It also features what I think you could almost call a hook as well a little bit. But to my ears, again, this track has a bit too slovenly and low energy of a delivery to justify its length and keep me on the edge of my seat with it. The somewhat stronger "Heavy Metal" follows this, which is a track that feels like a dreamy ode to the place in life that Earl is at currently and raps as if he is singing a little song to himself or delivering a series of information is meant to keep his head in the space that it needs to be in in order to just be in a constructive place.

After this, we have a casual finish for the record, and given Earl's creative history, I expected no less, no more either, because he does historically operate as an artist who isn't big on huge structures or massive concepts or ambitious progressions. He's really more about giving you an essence of a vibe of a moment of an idea. And yet still in the very abstract state in which he creates his music, he's still able to communicate as effectively as a Kendrick Lamar or even a Lupe Fiasco, when it comes to just simply getting his ideas across and showing you the emotions he's trying to put on display. And again, even with the final moments of this last track, it feels like a little bit of a cliffhanger or an acknowledgement that what we have just finished here is the latest chapter in the ongoing story of Earl's life, one that we will get an update on at some point when he feels it's necessary.

In a lot of respects, I see this record as the other side of the coin that Some Rap Songs is, because it is emotionally potent, it is abstract, it does feel loose, but there is a veteran experience and a brightness and a happiness to this record that is like the yin to that other album's yang, which is why I think I'm enjoying it so much and feel like so many of these songs, despite them not being strong on their own in the way that a traditional single might, they still end up sounding greater than the sum of their parts as an entire record.

Still, it does remain that there are a handful of tracks that I do wish were either built upon or had stronger vocal performances. But I still do think this is one of the best things that Earl has put out in years, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on it.

Anthony Fantano, Earl Sweatshirt, Forever.