Jobie's Bite-Sized Music Reviews #20: Fashion Week (album) - Death Grips
- arrangednoisefan
- Jun 1, 2022
- 2 min read
Recommended
This review uses the track names on the Spotify version of this album. This means that the second occurrence of a track with a specific letter in it will be marked with numbers. (For example “Runway n (2)”. This review also keeps the capitalization that the Spotify track listing uses.
Fashion Week is an instrumental hip hop album by the experimental hip hop group Death Grips. It is not considered a studio album, which is why The Powers That B is considered their fourth studio album and not their fifth. It was released around a month before The Powers That B, likely being worked on between 2014 and 2015.* Death Grips has always had awesome instrumentals, and this album is no exception to that fact. The instrumentals on this album range from dark, bass-y tracks to higher pitched, drum-filled tracks. One of the more unusual instrumentals is “Runway N”, which is a mix of what I assume to be oddly tuned keyboard sounds, mixed with the frantic drumming of Zach Hill. Tracks like “Runway N” are proof that Death Grips isn't bound by one, flat sound: instead, they have the ability to be flexible with their instrumentals, which makes for a lot of variety in their music. There are many headbangers to be had on this album, such as the bass-y, high-energy, drum and keyboard-sprinkled “Runway Y”. That particular track features some fast-paced drumming from Zach Hill. All of these elements, mixed together, make for one of the most enjoyable and headbangable tracks on the entire album. Of course, since this is an instrumental album, MC Ride's signature vocals are absent from this album**. While many reviewers have criticized this aspect of the album, I personally believe that the majority of the instrumentals on this album stand tall on their own, especially some of the better tracks like “Runway Y”. My favorite tracks from this album are “Runway E”, “Runway n (2)”, “Runway Y” (of course), and “Runway n (3)”. Overall, Fashion Week is a great instrumental album from Death Grips. The album features many awesome instrumentals, as well as some very headbangable tracks. Some may find the absence of MC Ride's vocals disappointing, but I believe that the instrumentals are good enough to stand tall on their own.
*While not explicitly stated anywhere online, the fact that one of the leaked tracks had the date “2.23.2014” in the title, as well as the fact that this was just an instrumental album, leads me to believe that it was probably only in production for a short period of time.
** Something that I'd like to point out about this album (which has no bearing on the recommendation status of it, and is also the reason why this is not a paragraph in the review) is that this is the only Death Grips album to not feature any explicit content. If you're looking for a Death Grips album to safely play out loud in front of your parents (or anyone else who may have a problem with Death Grips lyrics), then this is the album for you.
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