MC Lars has undergone a curious paradigm shift. Once the beloved token rapper lodged in the middle of every 14-year-old’s near-complete collection of Taking Back Sunday and Blink 182 and the the compere of Give It A Name, he’s now carved out his own little niché somewhere in the centre of a Venn diagram populated by nerdcore, emo kids and hip hop.
This record is hinting that the first circle is expanding. He’s now one of the major names on the Rhyme Torrents series of releases and has collaborated with with such geeky luminaries as ytcracker, Jesse Dangerously and The Former Fat Boys. Though the less said about what has become of his expensive one-song partnership with mc chris’ ego the better.
The unavoidable point to make about this record is the fact it’s fairly split into halves: likeable and laughable. In the first camp we’ve got the unerringly catchy ‘Guitar Hero Hero’, ‘We Have Arrived’ and ‘Twenty-Three’.
‘We Have Arrived’ is technically the best song on the album. Upbeat, slick and with a nice vocal contrast between the myriad of artists performing on it, it illustrates just what can be done with this type of music. In complete contrast, ‘Twenty-three’ has a chilling synth looping as Lars provides proof that he can do a serious introspective without seeming either corny or false. Even if he does manage to sneak in his room-mate, the tragic subject of the song, for a quick sojourn into the world of the weird via an old recording from his college days.
Unfortunately, though, the record has a few smellies too. ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’, ‘The Metric System’ and ‘Original Gamer’ being ideas best left in the notebook. On one of the occasions I’ve interviewed Lars he did mention his ultimate collaboration idea would be Weird Al Yankovic, so I’m pleased that it’s finally come off, but the song itself (‘True Player For Real’) is a little flat, perhaps because of its position as an extended semi-intro, which itself follows on from another semi-intro. Hmmm.
There’s a very good EP in here, but it’s ultimately surrounded by a fair bit of substandard fare. As it is, I’d recommend getting on iTunes and buying the individual tracks highlighted. After all, it’s sort of appropriate, isn’t it.