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I'll Sleep When You're Dead
2007 studio album by El-P From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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I'll Sleep When You're Dead is the second solo studio album by American hip hop artist El-P. It was released through Definitive Jux on March 20, 2007. It peaked at number 78 on the Billboard 200 chart,[1] selling about 11,000 copies in its first week.[2] Music videos were created for "Flyentology"[3] and "Smithereens".[4]
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Production
Despite his usual dislike of "records that have a bunch of (featuring so and so) after every song title",[5] El-P has explained the more organic nature of the collaborations on I'll Sleep When You're Dead:
My collaborations for the most part come from friendships I have with people who happen to be in the vicinity while I'm making my shit. Little splashes of other peoples voices, talents, energy used in subtle ways is the way I usually like to freak it. Rob does some back ups, Sweeny plays some guitar, Aes drops a verse, James plays some bass... whatever works at the time. It's the South Park theory: when George Clooney appeared on South Park it was as a gay dog. That's the type of shit that makes my day.[5]
El-P has compared the overall sound of the album's music to "a psychedelic Boogie Down Productions record", and like "Scott LaRock and Ced Gee take acid".[6]
The bird on the album's cover is based on a drawing that Alexander Calder made on a wooden toy airplane for El-P as a child.[7]
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Critical reception
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At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, I'll Sleep When You're Dead received an average score of 80 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]
John Bush of AllMusic gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "one of the most powerful hip-hop albums of 2007."[9] Dave Heaton of PopMatters gave the album 8 stars out of 10, saying: "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."[19] Andy Battaglia of The A.V. Club gave the album a grade of B, saying, "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."[10]
Consequence of Sound placed it at number 42 on the "Top 50 Albums of 2007" list.[20]
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Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.
- El-P – vocals, production, executive production
- Omar Rodríguez-López – vocals (1)
- Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals (1)
- Matt Sweeney – guitar (1)
- Wilder Zoby – synthesizer (1, 7)
- Mr. Dibbs – turntables (1, 2, 7, 8)
- Hangar 18 – vocals (2)
- Mr. Lif – vocals (3)
- Big Wiz – turntables (4)
- Aesop Rock – vocals (7)
- Cage – vocals (8)
- Daniel Kaufman – lute (8)
- Mr. Len – vocals (8)
- Victoria Allen – vocals (8)
- Daryl Palumbo – vocals (9), keyboards (9)
- Camu Tao – vocals (9)
- Trent Reznor – vocals (10), additional production (10)
- Atticus Ross – programming (10)
- Rob Sonic – vocals (10)
- Tame One – vocals (11)
- Joey Raia – vocals (12), recording, mixing
- Slug – vocals (12)
- Murs – vocals (12)
- Chan "Cat Power" Marshall – vocals (13)
- Kareem Bunton – guitar (13)
- Ikey Owens – keyboards (13)
- Michael Sarsfield – mastering
- Brad Smith – layout, design
- Timothy Saccenti – photography
- Amaechi Uzoigwe – executive production
- Jesse Ferguson – project management
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Charts
References
External links
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