“When I tell you this is tight, I mean this is tight” a friend of mine told me while discussing El-P’s upcoming release I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead; words of praise I could not ignore. When consuming the first few tracks made available, “Smithereens” and “Everything Must Go,” the casual listener is almost dared to turn away and look to whatever counts as the recent street-friendly hits from the self proclaimed king of the game. For it is in these tracks that where you won’t find any of those chipmunk-like background vocals Kanye made famous, you wont find easily accessible lyrics and nor will you find beats that will rock the party (that rocks the party). You will find something unique however, you will find El-P.

What’s brilliant about these first few tracks isn’t simply that they’re a total work of passion for the MC, having taken the past few years to complete, but rather that they exemplify everything mainstream is missing. They are raw, and uniform knows holds no meaning beneath their surface. Exploring the list of contributors alone is example enough to find this release exciting; Aesop Rock, Trent Reznor, Chan Marshall, Mr. Lif, Yo La Tengo’s James McNew and Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Heard of any of those cats?

I suggest you listen to the music, but not simply once or twice, leave it on repeat for a half hour, an hour, and tell me that you don’t want to hear more. As if it wasn’t already, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead is one of the most anticipated albums of the year and you won’t regret taking a sneak peak at it.

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