Flying Lotus- You’re Dead! (ALBUM REVIEW)

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flyinglotusyourdeadThe many changing ways in which we approach albums makes it difficult to say whether the format itself is on its last legs. Perhaps Weird Al’s singles-focused approach is what’s right for this morphing medium. Or maybe Thom Yorke has struck gold with a BitTorrent bundle, whatever the hell that happens to be. Regardless of perceived innovation, much can be said for the long player. Flying Lotus’ latest endeavor, You’re Dead!, aims to reclaim the LP’s glory with nineteen tracks of effortlessly fluid music. Its biggest buzz may be in its guests (Kendrick Lamar, Herbie Hancock, FlyLo’s alter-ego Captain Murphy) but the fact that the album was sent out to media as one standalone track is what should really grab your attention.

The album’s almost onomatopoeic title is less a celebration of death and more of a philosophical statement leading into a question: “You’re Dead! Now what?” or so FlyLo remarked in a recent Rolling Stone interview. It’s easy to imagine opener “Theme” easing you into a meditative post-life lull with tones of Ravi Shankar zen before giving way to breakbeat jazz and clanging cymbals. The comfortably frenetic “Tesla” soon cascades into “Cold Dead” and so on and so forth. The way in which Flying Lotus has processed how death has affected him on a psychic level is almost all-encompassing and yet wholly succinct.

Partially as a nod to his insane musical pedigree and through a desire to hear something far better than layman’s jazz, Flying Lotus set out to make his own jazz record. He also set about working with acclaimed musicians that he respects and admires himself. Kendrick Lamar’s fiery rhymes on “Never Catch Me” provide the perfect counter-melody for its percussion-heavy backing track. Contemporary handclap effects punctuate Lamar at his most forceful, a rough idiosyncrasy that pulls the listener away from the timeless qualities of the track at an almost anxiety-provoking rate. That theme of constant momentum is what ultimately guides FlyLo through the many phases of death and decomposition he aims to explore. With every breakdown, a new angle emerges in this fractal album.

You’re Dead! clocks in at a surprisingly short 38 minutes, making it damn near impossible to enjoy in small chunks. Its breathlessness is the type of overwhelming that washes over you when winding down for the evening, taking stock of life (in this case, death) or when you’ve lost track of time at all and find your evening far away from a fast-approaching morning. Heavy themes require heavy music and Flying Lotus takes great care in going deep. Standout track “Descent Into Madness” is perhaps the best example of You’re Dead!’s recursive themes. Backed by constant collaborator Thundercat, Flying Lotus embraces dissonance the way churches shied away from tritones. The closing two minutes of “The Protest” returns the listener to a peaceful drone, almost to say that your tour has finished, that there’s no further that you can go from here. Unless, of course, you turn the record back over and settle in for another long play.

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