Atrocity Exhibition

This is an excellent and refreshingly tense album.

On “When It Rain,” Brown shouts, “You ain’t heard it like this before,” like a madman. Atrocity Exhibition proves him right.

A thematic sequel to 2011 breakout mixtape ‘XXX’, Danny Brown remains rap’s most unique force.

As an album, it is both as lovably outrageous as Danny Brown, but also as menacing and impenetrable as his city is. Ultimately, it is this duality that makes Atrocity Exhibition the masterpiece it is.

Atrocity Exhibition is Danny Brown at his least diluted, almost unrelentingly grim and completely engrossing.

Atrocity Exhibition is a party rap album, a drug rap album, an emo rap album, and a post-punk album all rolled into one.

Atrocity Exhibition finds Brown back behind the lens, capturing raw emotion with grainy 16mm.

That Atrocity Exhibition sounds like neither backpack rap, hipster drivel nor dull trap, but something fresh that stands on its own is itself to be applauded. But that it’s so damn good too puts it among the best hip-hop albums in years.

Rich, deep, full of wit, rapid fire lyrics and fantastically unusual production, it’s Danny Brown proving yet again that he is one of the most exciting rappers working right now.

These songs aren’t for everyone, but they stand as some of the most fearlessly created music of the year--even if Brown sometimes sounds petrified for his life.

Even as Atrocity Exhibition plumbs depths, Brown remains a savvy operator. [Dec 2016, p.25]

The music is dementedly, nihilistically danceable. The propulsion of certain tracks seems designed to irrevocably drag the listener into Brown's contemplative, paranoid psyche and deep-welled emotionality and, though stylized, intimates the horrors he's seen and felt.

The whole of Atrocity Exhibition takes Brown’s craft to a new level, even if his delivery occasionally grates. It’s by far the best thing he’s released and confirms his arrival among the rap elite.

Brown cathects his trauma into his songs, redirecting his pain to a productive, pedagogic end.

Thematically he might travel into dark and desperate places, but the idea that one can find salvation in music is made vividly real by the rush of energy that is Atrocity Exhibition.

Normally you’d change carriages to avoid someone sounding this unhinged, but the 15 dosages Brown dispenses here are worryingly addictive.

With help from frequent collaborators Paul White and Black Milk, UK electronic producer Evian Christ, and crate-digging maestro the Alchemist, Brown brings his persistent terrors to life.

Yet beyond this wired mix of post-punk anxiety, splintered techno elements and haunting soul samples, it’s Danny Brown’s rhyming ability that ultimately sees the LP flourish.

Overall, Atrocity Exhibition is chewy and eclectic, a rich experience that reveals a new surprise with each listen. Years from now, there will still be goodies to unpack.

Atrocity Exhibition, through assertive honesty, embraces Danny's self-assaulting cycle and this time, he's not looking for any personal help. That may be because he's making the most focused, textured music of his career instead and it's clear he's abandoned any afterthought of possible radio panhandling or herd-minded mainstream appeal.

Distinctive and likely divisive, some spots showcase the most original beat-work you'll hear this year.

The fourth album from Detroit's Danny Brown is the year's most thrilling cry for help.

It’s a record that does more than just pitch him just leagues ahead of anyone else in the game; it’s a portrait of a man who’s more than happy to invent a whole new one.

If not every experiment works, Brown's twinkling hook-up with Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt on Really Doe totally surpasses its billing. [Nov 2016, p.89]

The oddball rapper with the humdrum name is carving out a space all of his own. [Nov 2016, p.102]

Whether he's rapping about stripping copper out of abandoned houses or addiction, Brown manages to wring humor and, somehow, relatability out of grim personal stories.

The most rewarding aspect of Atrocity Exhibition is the ease with which Danny Brown conducts this freakshow.

If Atrocity Exhibition doesn’t connect with quite the same power, it’s not for lack of commitment or craft. [Oct 2016, p.53]

At times, he comes across as brilliantly unorthodox with flows, genre-crossing beats and meticulously honest lyrics but those unfamiliar with his outré style may be pushed even further away from the album’s peculiarity.