Danny Brown – Old (Fool’s Gold)

Danny Brown – Old (Fool’s Gold)

Danny Brown - Old

Danny Brown pulls off a near-impossible trick here: A concept album about the numbing, desensitizing effects of partying all the time — the deeper darkness behind the hedonistic life — that still totally works as a party album. There’s an artful arc to this thing: A first half of deep head-nod rap about the horror and desperation of Danny’s early life, a second half of headlong cold-sweat dance-rap about Danny’s attempts to blitz that early life out of his head. It’s tough, intense stuff, but that toughness and intensity doesn’t compromise the simple rap joys of his frothing-hyena delivery or the breakneck pacing or Paul White’s small masterpiece of a “Lonely” beat. Old is an album that does the little things and the big things, that turns its thousand tiny euphorias into one huge, bleak tapestry. –Tom [LISTEN]