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The post Earl Sweatshirt Is Finally Ready to Live Laugh Love: Review<\/a> appeared first on Consequence<\/a>.<\/p>\n It can be difficult to tell when Earl Sweatshirt<\/a> is happy on wax. In his defense, he\u2019s been through a lot<\/em> since EARL<\/em>, his breakthrough mixtape in 2010. By 2015\u2019s I Don\u2019t Like Shit, I Don\u2019t Go Outside<\/em><\/a>, he had established himself as a stark, brooding lyricist who was consumed by the life brewing within him and around him. With each subsequent release, Earl has moved closer and closer to understanding, only to be yanked back by the circumstances of humanity. He\u2019s lost his father, and become a father and partner; found his creative community and shed dead weight. On Live Laugh Love<\/em>, titled after the overused suburban wall d\u00e9cor phrase, Earl finds contentment and comfort in his growth and faith \u2014 unironically.<\/p>\n With his latest album, Earl sounds like a man made anew. Through warbling, funk-fueled production provided by Queens rapper\/producer Theravada on the album opener, \u201cgsw vs sac,\u201d you can hear the smile in Earl\u2019s voice as he processes his place in life. \u201cEvery day, I lace my cleats and give Him praise, get your head in the game,\u201d he raps, firmly establishing his beliefs. Earl cedes the last minute of the song to a character who stands in as a source of comical inspiration. \u201cYou wanna chase instead of find,\u201d the voice says humorously. \u201cWhat you running from, yourself?\u201d Together, Earl and his accompanying guest encourage us to find our purpose in our own time and not a moment sooner.<\/p>\n Earl has long been on a path of self-discovery, and he\u2019s using Live Laugh Love<\/em> to catch us up on his hard-earned progress. On Theravada\u2019s \u201cINFATUATION,\u201d pumped full of soul samples and chiming keys, Earl raps about the lessons he\u2019s been taught by life itself. \u201cFlirts with danger, we hastily learn how to dance,\u201d he spits, before sharing that he\u2019s \u201cgleaning what I can from what I have amassed.\u201d At the end, Earl recalls the less-fortunate circumstances he\u2019s come from, before snapping back to his blessed present: \u201cThe low hum of hunger had my stomach singing songs of sadness, wishing it wasn\u2019t flat\/ Tonight, we dining where?\u201d He has the gravitas and willingness to revisit the depths of his most formative moments, while still appreciating and reveling in his current position.<\/p>\n Any writing about Earl you come across will inevitably involve the word \u201cdense.\u201d From his lyrical delivery to the production he prefers to rap over, Earl\u2019s approach is concentrated in its compacted intensity. He stretches and pulls syllables like a taffy machine, inventing his very own relationship with words over production that scatters your brain at max volume. In particular, the weighty beats crafted by Detroit DJ\/producer Black Noi$e give Earl copious opportunities to parse through his own streams of thought. \u201cLive\u201d opens with echoing drums and tinging cymbal, sounding considerably brighter than the songs that preceded it. You can almost envision Earl gripping a mic as he spits closely to it, an intimate display of heightened concentration. The beat switches exactly halfway through to a reverberating video game-inspired soundscape, as Earl borderline mumbles under his breath: \u201cThe stronghold of faith is keeping me whole.\u201d The clash of sound over voice can be difficult to understand at times (a recurring issue throughout Live Laugh Love<\/em>), but it gets at the heart of Earl\u2019s present focus.<\/p>\n Earl has famously overcome boarding school<\/a> and the trappings of teen fame, but depression has been lingering in his peripheral for years. The anthemic \u201cStatic,\u201d also produced by Black Noi$e, feels triumphant compared to the rest of the album, and even the majority of Earl\u2019s discography \u2014 he sounds vocally clear and inspired to talk his shit. Somehow, he manages to string together a film reference that doubles as a call-back to a historical prison performance<\/a>, and tops that with a hat-tip to both Prince and Future: \u201cLet it Sing Sing<\/a> on you like a Voice from East Harlem<\/a>\/ Easy target, three-ball, game blouses<\/a>\/ Let the purple<\/a> rain<\/a> douse \u2019em\/ I thought it was a drought<\/a>.\u201d Earl is having more fun with spinning bars out of his complex experiences, be they traumatic or joyful. Even his simplistic flexes ring out louder than the hardest lyrics from mainstream rappers.<\/p>\n Popular Posts<\/p>\n