ALBUM REVIEW: Astronautalis – ‘Cut the Body Loose’

One of the music industry’s most underrated artists, Astronautalis, is back, and he is angrier, more impassioned than ever before. If This is Our Science was an adventure into slightly more mainstream territory, Cut the Body Loose is the Florida native’s hark back to the gritty and raucous. It’s all the better for it.

Opening with ‘Kurt Cobain’, Astronautalis wastes no time to lay down his distinctive sharp social commentary over a dirty, brooding beat. When some hip-hop artists rap about the problems with today’s society, it can come across as cheesy and lazy, eager to impress the cynics of the world. No such issue here; Astronautalis means every line, every exclaimed call to arms.

Quickly keeping up the tempo with ‘1515 Washington’, Cut the Body Loose continues at a canter as the production allows a deeper understanding of the lyrics and messages Astronautalis is trying to convey; he’s an artist that doesn’t need cookie cutter beats and stadium-ready choruses to sell records. Producer Justin Vernon has to be commended for showcasing his vocals throughout the album.

Sounding like your favourite Western’s soundtrack had a date with Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor, ‘Running Away From God’ is one of many highlights of the album. The beat is infectious, the delivery tight, and the constant build to a pay-off that doesn’t disappoint creates a song that, although a little light on lyricism, is one of Cut the Body Loose’s finest tracks. Slowing the pace, ‘Kudzu’ is an effective bridge for the album which, as is to be expected, comes packed with Astronautalis’ iconic stance on modern life. Cut the Body Loose takes a shortcut to anthemic territory with ‘Guard the Flame’, but the escalation from relatively subdued bars and delivery to full-on Arcade-Fire-playing-Wembley isn’t jarring for a second.

The listener is allowed a breather with ‘In the Tall Grass’, but it isn’t a meandering intermission – it deftly slides between the bulk of the album, helping to transition to the second, more intriguing half. If you had to pick the weakest link on Cut the Body Loose, it would have to be ‘Attila Ambrus’: a slightly out-of-place two and a half minutes that is heavy on trumpets and light on meaningful lyrics.

Astronautalis’ jealousy-inducing grasp of the English continues on ‘Forest Fire’ as he expertly compares the failings of a marriage to a woodland disaster. The strongest lyrics of the album are evidenced here, particularly these thought-provoking lines:

“I ain’t no christian that was momma’s thing
I don’t know how to pray and if I did I’m not too sure he’s listening
To me it’s whispering
I don’t know
Maybe there is some fucking magic in giving language to hidden things”

Unlike his previous album, the titular track on ‘Cut the Body Loose’ isn’t a call to arms, a vitriolic slice of social cynicism. It’s stripped back and haunting as Astronautalis seems to beg for a loved one to recover from a coma. In anyone else’s hands, the subject could have been tasteless and tacky, but Astronautalis’ constant realism keeps it grounded.

“We’re all just waiting
For you to breathe
My knees bleed from praying
You’ll wake from your sleep
You can’t hear what I’m saying
No matter how I scream
We know the world
Is wasted on me”

Venturing through bombastic, downright floor-stomping avenues, ‘Sike’ is Cut the Body Loose at its best. Age seems to have given Astronautalis a harsher edge, evident when he lyrically opens fire on today’s youth. If maturity brings bullshit-defeating genius like this, I can’t wait until I reach 34. Want to show your friends why Astronautalis is so underrated? Put Sike on and turn it up until they get the message.

With the album coming to its conclusion, ‘Boiled Peanuts’ is a reflective, effective way of bringing Cut the Body Loose to its stellar end. Injecting soul and heart into the track, it’s really just a glorified end credits, but somehow Astronautalis keeps the attention when many others would allow an album to go out with a whimper.

If you’re yet to listen to Astronautalis, start with this album. Then tell all your friends, get them to tell their friends and their friends’ parents and so on. Cut the Body Loose is a triumph, trumping the already seminal This is Our Science to surely become the best hip-hop album of the year so far.