The Album Club: "Dark Comedy" by Open Mike Eagle
 

http://www.trollheart.com/openmike.jpg
Penultimate album to be reviewed in round three. Discuss, review, comment and post Nazi gifs here.

Big Open Mike Eagle fan. Almost his best album (7.3/10).
Awkwardly beautiful dark humor that turns raw, often crap,
reality into something transcendently entertaining. “I’m pretty
sure I self-deprecate for your benefit.”

I like it because I pretty much universally like all hip hop. It’s not minstrel show hip hop meaning it’s not like a black guy pretending to be scary to appear exotic. That’s good if you can hang your hat on it but his rhymes end up pretty dry. Maybe it’s intentionally everyday like his phone data and gas mileage but unfortunately it’s not funny and that’s a pretty serious drawback for “comedy”. It’s also not especially fun. It’s not very hypnotic and it feels like it’s going out of its way NOT to be clever. Still though 3/5.

Open Mike Eagle- Dark Comedy ( 2014)

Best Tracks: Dark Comedy Morning Show, Qualifiers, Very Much Money.

Weakest Tracks: Thirsty-Ego Raps, Deathmate Black.



Disclaimer: I’m not especially a fan of rap. It is possible a rap/ hip hop fan would give this a better review than I’m about to.

Having said this, Dark Comedy starts out like gangbusters. If the album continued in the vein of its first two tracks, Dark Comedy Morning Show and Qualifiers, I probably would have given this a more positive review.

Starting with Thirsty Ego Raps, I have a hard time keeping up with the album. The track sound like it has audio difficulties which is why I rate this as one of the weakest tracks on the album. I also get that with rap and hip hop you tend to get some language. My criticism here is that sometimes the language takes away from what Open Mike Eagle is trying to convey. It’s a shame because the lyrics at times are rather clever.

Occasionally, there are moments where the lyrics don’t seem to match up with the beats. Rap/ Hip Hop at its best is essentially poetry with a backing beat IMO. There is some eighties political rap and hip hop that I can really get into. Public Enemy would be a great example.

As for this album, while there are a few decent tracks that I mentioned in my best tracks, the poorer tracks tend to take the album down for me. He does have a thing for superpowers though.

5/10 (the Word has spoken :D)

Too tired for a full review today, but I will try not to be lazy this week and do some homework as well.

I think it's just that OME is trying to avoid taking the goofier approach found in other comedic hip hop artists' music by coming out with something that's a little more wry and dry (not to say that he doesn't get sillier at points like Informations). It's cool if you don't think that style is funny, but there's definitely a lot of successful humour on this record.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, but this album has a lot to offer and improves upon multiple listens. I also think it works well on the first spin so it might not be the same for you on that end.

Meh, I think he uses it in a very natural way that maybe you're just not used to. I suppose it varies from person to person on how much it takes to devalue something by however much.

Much to my surprise, I'm enjoying this album quite a bit. Generally not a fan of hip hop.

I think it's funny. Lot's of clever lines all over the place.

The beats (that's what I'm supposed to call the backing music, right?) are very nicely varied, textured and with a sense of sonic depth to them. Much hip hop is musically boring to me. Most, really. This album has a lot of good things going for itself in this department and I like it.

I like the overall personality, voice and style of this rapper. I think he's got a lot of subtle qualities that serve to make these tracks feel varied, interesting and relatable. There's no tough guy posturing and it's not too goofy either. Despite being a comedy album, there's a strong human undercurrent to this. A sort of connection to reality and everyday life that makes the album feel more relatable and nuanced.

Don't know if I will buy the CD eventually, but I will keep it on my Spotify for sure.

This is a good album. I voted "liked it".

I’ll give it another go in a few weeks then. Maybe it’s just my mood. I almost never disagree with your music opinions so it carries a lot of weight.

The music goes from being average to monotonous and boring. I don't care if he's sharp or flat when he sings. No really cares about that with rap. It's what he has to say and how he goes about it. He constant epeening, and it's dull. I guess what turned me off to this no talent is this line:

Really any person from any race or ethnic could "assume" the same, or "think" the same so it bascially boils down to
After that burst of white-hating I lost interest in this boring shitty album.

e-peen/10

He's got a point though. Have you ever met a white person?

I think Nea needs to not review rap. :D
Apparently he's unable to "Respect [OME's] qualifiers."

What if he said Asian or a Jewish? Would you say the same "Have you ever met a ... ?" In my opinion if you say one thing about one group, if you change the group and it sounds racist then it's racist. It walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck. I know the rebuttal by heart, "you can't be racist towards white people" so that why it is just hatred.

Another micro-burst of hatred are the lines where he wants raps about how to kill or maim the Koch brothers.

The Koch brothers are libertarians. From their perspective they are defending "the principles of a free society." So for that he believes he is justified to beat them with a rubber hose?

I've never actually met a white person, I was just wondering if you had been so unlucky.

Coke sucks, they deserve it but it would be better if he said lead pipe because then it'd be a cool pipeline pun.

lol

I’m starting to like this record more without even listening again

I thought dropping butter on them is because they have a lot of bread (aka money). Then I aks myself why do I even bother to figure out if there some hidden reference in those lyrics.
Open Mike is so full of all these opinions, so why cuss off white people, and fantasizes about attacking the Koch brothers because they have opinions too?Like I said from Kock bros perspective they are defending liberty. So how is that a crime that can only be rectify by a vigilante rubber hose beat down? It's OME calls to violence I don't jive with. It's like Open Mike is saying "I aint no gansta but I certainty do make an exception for the Koch brothers."

So if OME told you he was defending liberty with his lyrics you'd be cool with him?

Well I just gave him a call and he said that. Glad you're a fan now. Anyways, don't call him racist or he'll snap.

^ yes, it's a reference more obscure than all of Open Mike's references.

This one was definitely new territory for me, as I've probably heard a grand total of two, perhaps three hip-hop songs in my life, and I couldn't name them if I was asked. Ninety percent of my listening is instrumental, so the vocal focus of rap music is really removed from what I look for on a record. Still, I wanted to give it a fair shot.

The fractured classical instrumentation on Thirsty Ego Raps was welcome, and I imagine it's reminiscent of 90s turntablism and sampledelic/technostalgic tunes of the heyday of sampling. I'm curious how commonplace (or how rare) plunderphonia has become in the tightfisted copyright climate of the present day.

MicShazam's summary was concise and spot-on. I appreciated the lack of posturing and token subject matter I recall pouring from streetside ghetto blasters twenty-five years ago. Still, I don't entirely understand the comedic element here, and the frequent postmodern cultural references were entirely lost on me. But that's not a fault of the record, it just doesn't speak to me, personally.

Too far outside my wheelhouse to give it a score.

First lines of the album:

I think that Golden Age Raps is the best example of Mike's style of ironic and wry humour for those who aren't very familiar with him. Most of the lines and the outro sample crack me the **** up.

Best bits bolded.

Is this your recommendation, Frown?

Those lyrics aren’t exactly mind blowing...

Yes.

I'm not sure if I'd call them mind blowing since I tend to save that for lyrics that are more coded so to speak, but I dig the conversationality and cleverness of the lines. Some of them work a lot better with the delivery like the are you watching line.

Is there anything that comes to mind that's lyrically similar to you?

Hmn...mixed feelings for a mixed bag here. Some tracks work ('Very Much Money' is pretty funny, 'Thirsty Ego Raps' has some great underlying samples) and a lot is just kinda shrugworthy (the cringey lyrics on 'Qualifiers' as others have pointed out).

He's not that far removed from guys like Cise Star or Substantial, but there's a lack of cohesion between how his samples and flow go together that makes this a little less compelling overall than I was hoping it would be. I'm not expecting primetime Big Boi, but a couple of good hooks would have done a world of good. At least at that point I'd feel a desire to revisit this. Pitchfork gave it an 8 but I think I'll go halfsies. Brick Body Kids Still Daydream isn't perfect either but it soars over this.

4 out of 10

I think this album is fine, not a big rap fan, and his style is a bit annoying to me, so it's not my favorite thing ever, but the beats are solid and I enjoy the overall atmosphere. 6/10

Swans - Filth
Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy
Bootsy Collins - Tha Funk Capitol of the World

Okay, first time ever I've missed the deadline, but I think we all know why that is.

Short answer: really like this album. Much different to what I had expected. Great melodies, great singing, very atmospheric, really enjoyable all the way through. Those little "jingles" in between some of the tracks annoyed me but otherwise this is a solid 9/10. Good one.

I've already exposed a lot of my thoughts about this record via discussion, but here's a standalone.

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Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy

This record is diverse and showcases a lot of Open Mike Eagle's finer points that some of his previous albums only touch on. Goofle turned me onto this record when it first came out, but that was early on in my hip hop appreciation and it didn't have the experimental or abrasive nature of the majority of the stuff I was into at the time so it kind of slipped off of the radar. I decided to revisit it after seeing it pop up in my discover section on Spotify and really came around to it.

Mike's sing-songy rapping style blurs the lines between singing and speaking, which is what I think makes OME so singular. I could just be ignorant on how unique his is in that aspect though. The line between singing and rapping is even finer on his latest album, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, which I agree with Ant is a lot stronger due to its consistency and really powerful theme, but it hadn't been released at the time of my pick and it's even more of a grower so it might not have been a good choice.

Anyways, I like the diversity of the album a lot. The only track that I'd outright cut is Jon Lovitz and Big Pretty Bridges because they're kind of lackluster in comparison. Jon Lovitz is a funny characterization of overzealous promoters.

The two more upbeat tracks that open the album are good, but I think it starts to take off in a more interesting and dark direction with Thirsty Ego Raps.

I don't often go for skits, but that tone deaf interview at the end of Golden Age Raps is funny as ****. Really love how lyrically, his use of ironic humour on a lot of the tracks switches to social commentary and back very naturally.

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned the features. Comedian Hannibal Buress has a better than expected and funny verse on Doug Stamper. Don't set **** on fire. Really dig the darker beat and hook on this track, it goes hard. Kool AD of Das Racist has an awesome verse in his half-asleep and high as **** style on Informations, but I like OME's verse better. Just a fun track overall though and like, so deep too bruh.

Idaho has my favourite production on the album and lyrically I think it's trying to emulate falling asleep at the wheel as the vehicle goes from car to plane to spaceship about to make a crash landing.

Overall it's a fun listen for me that I can both throw on and get caught in the melodies of or zero in on the lyrics and try to catch all of OME's little jokes. Not a perfect record but a damn good time. 8.5/10