Review: Busdriver - Perfect Hair
By Travis Boswell, Staff Writer
[Big Dada; 2014]
Rating: 5/10
Key Tracks: “Ego Death,” “When the Tooth-lined Horizon Blinks”
Busdriver has been making hip-hop for over a decade with almost no breaks, but his process has kept him under the radar. Each Busdriver album varies wildly from the others. A new Busdriver release could be seen as a classic by one fan and a mediocre effort by another. Perfect Hair won't break this trend.
As opposed to 2012's Beaus$Eros, multiple producers contribute to Perfect Hair. It makes the album feel less cohesive but it also means there should be at least one song that a listener can latch onto. Even when Busdriver's references are at their most obscure, the production is solid. Busdriver produces four tracks for this album, each one covering a personal topic.
“Retirement Ode” reveals how much Perfect Hair cost to create in Busdriver's almost sarcastic praising of himself. “Bliss Point” has him reveal his exhaustion with people slapping labels on every artist and superficial worries about the state of hip-hop. He wonders, “Where exactly is hip-hop going / did hip-hop have breakfast this morning / does hip-hop really have the body type to pull off that outfit?” It's partly a joke, but clearly part of Busdriver's frustration with being labelled indie or alternative hip-hop throughout his entire career.
The more lighthearted parts of songs like “Bliss Point” and “King Cookie Faced (For Her)” are welcome, because much of Perfect Hair is impenetrable. Busdriver speaks in complex metaphors and references to past songs. It's an album to listen to while reading the lyrics and even then some points will be lost if you haven't listened to Busdriver before. The production makes it more accessible than most Busdriver albums, but the vocals don't.
This applies to Busdriver's delivery as well. He adopts a half sung, half rapped style for the majority of songs on Perfect Hair, which makes certain lyrics more difficult to understand. Busdriver's voice is different from many rappers and an acquired taste; on songs like “Upsweep” and “Bliss Point,” his singing clashes against the song. The risk that experimental artists take is that not every experiment will work and unfortunately Busdriver ends up sounding out of place on several tracks.
However, the guest artists sprinkled throughout Perfect Hair all sound at home. Danny Brown and Aesop Rock blend their wildly different styles on the fantastic “Ego Death,” and Open Mike Eagle's smooth delivery on “When The Tooth-lined Horizon Blinks” makes the punchline at the end even better: “Saw your mom in Guitar Center licking on the trumpets / Because your mother is disgusting”.
The performance of the guest artists on Perfect Hair is interesting because their verses are all better than Busdriver's contributions. His delivery and occasionally his voice seem to fight the production, even on the songs he produced himself. It's a Busdriver album where Busdriver himself is the weakest link. Perfect Hair is at its best when Busdriver is sharing the spotlight with others.
