Jobie's Bite-Sized Music Reviews #23: Year of the Snitch (album) - Death Grips
- arrangednoisefan
- Jun 4, 2022
- 2 min read
Recommended
Year of the Snitch is a 2018 punk rap and noise rock album by the experimental hip hop group Death Grips. It is their sixth and currently* latest studio album, released two years after Bottomless Pit. It features the most collaborations yet, with contributions from DJ Swamp, Andrew Adamson (the director of Shrek and Shrek 2)**, Justin Chancellor (the bassist for the band Tool)***, and Justice Yeldham (the creator of a sort of glass instrument). Being within an entirely different genre than the majority of their studio albums, the band has shapeshifted their sound majorly on this album. Admittedly, their new sound may take some getting used to (even by people who have listened to all of their previous albums), but this doesn't take away from the fact that this newer sound introduces a variety of cool elements to the sonic palette of Death Grips. In general, there is a larger variety of sounds to be found in the instrumentals on this album, making each instrumental pack a fair amount of texture. One particular track that deserves to be pointed out is the track “Shitshow”, a 1 minute and 44 second, chaotic track, with speedy drumming by Zach Hill and rapidly delivered vocals by MC Ride. It is perhaps one of the most frantic tracks on the entire album, and sounds significantly different from the other 12 tracks on Year of the Snitch. “Little Richard” is also quite a curveball, being quite different from the rest of the album as well. Interestingly, it features Zach Hill's only vocal contributions in six studio albums. Death Grips' lyricism**** is one of the only things that remains constant throughout their many changes, and this album is no exception to that fact. As always, this can lead to a few tracks which contain lyrics that make little sense – such as the track “Hahaha”, for instance – but is it really Death Grips if not one track on the album makes you go, “This sounds great, but what is this song even about? My favorite tracks from this album are “Death Grips Is Online”, “Flies”, “Hahaha”, and “Streaky”. Overall, Year of the Snitch is another great album by Death Grips, and features yet another re-iteration of the band's sound. This sound could take some getting used to, but does not detract from the enjoyment of the album. Instrumentally, the band works in a fair amount of texture; lyrically, the band has continued to be creatively inclined. The collaborations on this album feel worth it as well, with many of the collaborators asking an additional layer of flavor to some of the songs on this album.
* As of June 4th, 2022.
** Spoken word on the track “Dilemma”.
*** He plays the bass on the track “Disappointed”.
**** Speaking of lyrics, there are two tracks that do not have any – those two tracks being “The Horn Section” and “Outro”, respectively.
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