clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned (Review)
clipping. continues to pursue their oddball horrorcore, with phenomenal results...
23rd October 2020
Sup Pop
My Rating:
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9.5
/10
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REVIEW
On clipping.'s last album, the experimental hip hop three piece made their debut into a new genre of music for them, that being horrorcore. Born out of their shared love of horror movies, they redirected their noise rap and industrial influences into a more minimalist, focused and genuinely unsettling style, with several standout songs featuring some ambitious soundscapes that showcased the best of the trio's production and rapping talents, albeit without the same consistency of some of their earlier projects. However, I still think very highly of the album, particularly given it birthed the group's best song, "Blood of the Fang". Despite this, it wasn't a sound anyone expected them to continue with, but in fact here we are just a year later with a brand new clipping. album that continues to explore the same themes.
What could anyone have against this album? Well, given it's the second album in one pretty niche style, it's no surprise that some people would make the argument that this album is unecessary, or unambitious, but I would have to disagree with that assumption, even if it was my own when first going into this project. In fact, my initial reaction to this album was rather ambivalent, only being impressed with a handful of tracks, three of them being singles. Thankfully, this feeling didn't persist with subsequent listens, and I soon realised I was more enamored with this album than with There Existed an Addiction to Blood.
The question emerges, what did they do differently on this album for me to prefer it? The themes, atmosphere, and ideas are all the same, and yet to me it is clearly superior. The short answer would be the execution. Despite having more tracks, and a similar runtime, the album feels more concise, in part due to the interludes. On the last album, none of these tracks felt essential to the album, filling space that didn't need filling and failing to bring anything that wasn't provided better by the album's main songs. By comparison, with Visions of Bodies Being Burned, the interludes are brief and complimentary, playfully interacting with the songs they precede and succeed, especially on "Wytchboard" which transitions unexpectedly into "'96 Neve Campbell", one of the album's many highlights.
Continuing to discuss "'96 Neve Campbell", I believe this song helps exemplify another essential point with which this album improves on There Existed..., specifically when it comes to my enjoyment. For as impressed as I was with that project, it was an album I had to listen to at night, and I had to be in a certain mood. Here on Visions, that isn't the case, it being an album I would gladly listen to anywhere, even if it is greatly enhanced by listened at night. The songs here manage to pull off being both unsettling, and incredibly, unexpectedly fun, more than they have any right to be.
What clipping. have achieved here is arguably a new peak for their career, an album that is more accessible than their last, but one that also explores with wider boundaries than the last. Despite this new breadth, the album is more consistent, more concise and more engaging, only losing focus once towards the end of "Eaten Alive" and its commendable attempt at jazzy deconstruction. Overall though, this album holds my attention more than any other I've heard this year, and you can bet this is a contender for my album of the year.
TRACK RATINGS (/10)
1. Intro - 7
2. Say the Name - 10
3. Wytchboard (Interlude) - n/a
4. '96 Neve Campbell - 10
5. Something Underneath - 8
6. Make Them Dead - 8
7. She Bad - 8
8. Invocation (Interlude) - n/a
9. Pain Everyday - 9
10. Check the Lock - 10
11. Looking Like Meat - 10
12. Drove (Interlude) - n/a
13. Eaten Alive - 7
14. Body for the Pile - 9
15. Enlacing - 9
16. Secret Piece - n/a
BREAKDOWN
Ambition: 9
Atmosphere: 10
Catchiness/Enjoyability: 10
Content/Ideas: 9
Emotion/Engaging: 10
Execution: 10
Production: 9
Structure: 9
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Lyrics: 9
Vocals/Flows: 10
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Total: 95
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