Death Grips - Government Plates
Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. Today, I will be reviewing Death Grips' third studio album, Government Plates. Now kicked out of Epic Records, the group founded Third Worlds. One of the songs on here features Robert Pattinson, of all people. He's actually a big Death Grips fan. Anyway, with that being said, let's get into the review...
Right off the bat, we start with the interestingly named, You Might Think He Loves You for Your Money but I Know What He Really Loves You for It’s Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat. And this song culminates everything their previous album lacked, pure, raw aggression, ground shaking synth basses, hammering drums. Amazing opener.
And then the pure hyped aggression of the previous track is broken by Anne Bonny. With some heavily filtered vocals, light hearted synths, clean sounding basslines and synthetic sounding drums, I did not enjoy this song.
Two Heavens was pretty similiar, only with some better drumming. However, that didn't save this song. Nothing aggressive or distorted to be found.
This Is Violence Now sounds straight up goofy. The vocal chops that make up the main melody are an awful feature of this song. The drums sounded awful. Ride isn't even screaming.
Now we have Birds, which is a bit better. The "acina" thing in the hook is a bit annoying, but the rest of the song is pretty good. Not much bass, the guitar is really cool and alongside Ride's menacing, softer vocals work so well together.
Feels Like A Wheel is a mostly instrumental track, with very little to it. It sounds way too goofy and lighthearted for Death Grips.
I'm Overflow is pretty similiar, only a bit more screaming from Ride.
Big House is actually pretty nice. The breakbeat drums, the filtered vocals and the synth arps at the beginning are actually pretty cool.
Next we have the title track which shifts from a trippy instrumental, to a section full of distorted bass and vocals. Still isn't anything outstanding.
Bootleg is pretty similiar to the rest of the instrumental songs on here. Too lighthearted and clean for Death Grips' standards.
But the closer, Whatever I Want, is a surprising song to see hear. Distorted synth arps, distorted bass, Ride's screaming, the drums aren't the best, but they're much better than the rest of the album. This song also shifts from the loud intro section, to a much more atmospheric and menacing section, full of noise, filtered vocals and distorted synth basslines. A pretty nice way to close the album.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album, or at least the large majority of it, does not hold up. Uninteresting, uninspired and it doesn't have the same Death Grips punch that Exmilitary and The Money Store had.
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