Death Grips - No Love Deep Web (2012)
In 2012, the band released their amazing album "The Money Store" and then, a few months later, proceeded to post this album up for free like total badasses, which ended up causing them a shitload of problems with the record label they had signed to, because the record label hadn't been alerted to it, and upon the record company emailing them urging them to take down the download, Death Grips responded with laughter and a firm "FUCK YOU". You'll have to look up the entire story surrounding that, but I feel like that's important context for this album, almost like a storyline you have to catch yourself up on before experiencing.
To be honest, with this album, coming right after "The Money Store" and how impressed I was by that, this album was underwhelming at first, with me missing the flairs and excitement from the previous album, and its almost-accessible nature. "No Love Deep Web" is arguably a much more challenging listen that hides its catchiness a fair bit in comparison, and is rather minimalistic compared to "The Money Store". Whereas the previous album's greatest strength was pummeling a catchy chorus into your head over catchy and distorted synths, this album relies much more on the element of surprise, throwing out even more abrasive and at times even simplistic (for Death Grips' standards) instrumentals, as vocalist MC Ride delivers his most insane and graphic lyrics yet, with feelings of depression, schizophrenia, and violence running rampant throughout his oddly disassociative poetry. The lyrics, at times, remind me of someone taking a shitload of DXM and letting their mind spill out all of its (sometimes deranged) thoughts as the user seems to mentally disconnect from the world around them.
There's nothing here that's exactly super-new for Death Grips to have explored, so returning fans shouldn't expect any shit like "WHOA, THERE'S A TRACK WHERE MC RIDE MOTORBOATS ZACH HILL'S ASS FOR THE PERCUSSION!!" but I'm sure that if you've made it this far in this discography without dismissing the group's musical efforts as "just noise" or "angry hobo yelling" then this will probably still take a few listens to sink in, as the album's greatest strengths aren't going to be immediately visible on first or even second listen for most listeners, even Death Grips fans. The darker tone of the music may be welcomed by some, but turn off everyone else who shows up to Death Grips shows yelling for them to play "Hustle Bones" or "I've Seen Footage", unless they find themselves a new love in the catchiness of "No Love", "Whammy", or "Stockton".
After a lot of listens, I just gotta be honest, even though I like this album, it doesn't seem to sink its claws as deeply into me as the previous album did. It's far from being bad, or even just "decent", because some songs on here really kick ass, but this is definitely an album they tried to do something different on, and while I respect the hell out of it for what it is, it's a good follow-up to "The Money Store" even if it's not as instantly memorable. Plus, how the fuck else would I know what Zach Hill's dick looked like?! That's some fucking important information!! Time to save that one in a folder called "Tax Returns 2013" for later use.
7/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
