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Ultimately, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead displays a type of artistic growth almost alien to the genre.
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I'll Sleep When You're Dead is too smart, too relevant, and too dangerous.
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One of the most powerful hip-hop albums of 2007.
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I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is a triumph that will, like its predecessor, take years to unpeel.
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The Impressionistic sound painting El-P has long threatened - and finally delivered.
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It seems - for the first time, perhaps - he's made one out of love for the artform alone rather than with the added motive of letting off a little barely-suppressed rage or feeling he has scores to settle, either with the industry or himself.
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Entertainment WeeklyHe flirts with melody here... and relaxes his delivery, allowing us to take a breath before heading back into the chaos. [23 Mar 2007, p.59]
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Once it hits its stride, it just keeps on getting better.
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UrbThere was a lot going on, but it's not until now... that El-P's music could actually be called full. So full that even silence weighs a ton. [Mar 2007, p.95]
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Paste MagazineAlready the best hip-hop release of 2007, and it ain't even close. [Mar 2007, p.68]
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UncutFor those willing to take a chance, it's an impeccably realised, verbose treat. [Apr 2007, p.99]
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It's a scary, difficult album, but one well suited for our times.
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“I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead” feels simultaneously futuristic, anachronistic and of the moment.
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It is in the spaces between words and drums, and in the general structures of the songs... that El-P most clearly exhibits growth. And it is these points on the album that make I’ll Sleep an intriguing release.
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El-P's uniquely, beautifully harsh vision remains undiluted.
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Where [Fantastic Damage] assured its legacy through sheer density, piling beats on top of one another haphazardly and layering hype tracks laced with punchlines, subtexts, and asides, Sleep finds El-P focusing his fury into individual crescendos, particularly during the record’s sterling second half.
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El-P has masterfully used New York’s dark corners as a productive muse on I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead.
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After repeat listens, the content of El-P’s more afflictive lyrics begins to fall away so that only the rhythm and timbre of his smoky growl remain to complement the record’s malevolent chorus of synth effects and samples. A beautiful use of negative space, indeed.
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The genius of I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead—and the reason it deserves to be considered as a progressive step in El-P’s journey as an artist—is that the tracks are just as dense and complex as on his other albums, but in a new, fresh way.
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Alternative PressIt's full of the old-fashioned care and craft hip-hop has largely forgotten. [May 2007, p.160]
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Nobody makes hip-hop as textured and atmospheric as El-P, and he manages to temper his disorienting noise with soulful suggestions this time out.
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SpinEqual parts faithful-but-twisted boom bap and avant-indie rock, the album drips with elbow grease. [Mar 2007, p.91]
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BlenderFor the first time in El-P's career, he's realized you don't need to be loud to get your point across. [Apr 2007, p.110]
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BillboardTalk about bleak. [24 Mar 2007]
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If you enjoy using your brain rather than listening to it fizzle to the strains of Virgin Radio, then buy this.
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Q MagazineThere's not much in the way of light relief. [Apr 2007, p.118]
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VibeThis is his most conventional and guest-heavy work, but also a rewarding reminder that independent hip hop was once something more than a curio. [Apr 2007, p.128]
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The problem, however, is that [El-P]'s work is often too deliberated and too dense to work on levels other than the intellectual.
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If you're into nodding your head and scratching your head at the same time, Dead is for you.
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El-P's progressive beats here are full of driving, distorted drum sounds and rough samples; futuristic b-boy shit that walks a fine line between funky and grating.
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MojoEl-P's portentous delivery lacks poetics. [May 2007, p.110]
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"I'll Sleep" isn't supposed to be easy listening, but it shouldn't be this hard, either.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 52 out of 58
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Mixed: 2 out of 58
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Negative: 4 out of 58
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johnnyb.Jun 12, 2007I would call el-p ahead of his time, but I don't think time will ever catch him.
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Aug 1, 2019
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Mar 5, 2016