According to Stereogum.com, just a few months after his previous LP, Black Hole Superette, Aesop Rock is back with the album’s follow-up, I Heard It’s A Mess There Too. The album is inspired by keeping up with long-distance friendships and how social media is used to document political uprisings and tragedy. “I’d been building tracks the same way for many years, but I made a conscious shift in my process here. I tried out some new tools and attempted to make my beats cleaner, more minimal,” said Rock.

The artist adds: “The drums are more stripped back, the bass lines are allowed to just sit, without layering ten things on top. I didn’t want the beat and the vocals competing for attention and I just wanted enough to get a wave rolling and not much more, just setting a mood I could move to.”

I Heard It’s A Mess There Too is not available on streaming as of now but people can listen on YouTube or download it for free here. It will be available to purchase on vinyl and cassette; per Reddit, some previous customers of Rock’s label Rhymesayers were sent surprise test pressings, much to their confusion. Hopefully, this clears things up.

Photo Credit: Brett Padelford