Skelethon

Skelethon is the sixth studio album by American hip hop artist Aesop Rock. It was released through Rhymesayers Entertainment on July 10, 2012.^[12]

Skelethon
Studio album by Aesop Rock
Released	July 10, 2012 (2012-07-10)
Genre	Hip-hop
Length	55:10
Label	Rhymesayers Entertainment
Producer	Aesop Rock
Aesop Rock chronology
None Shall Pass (2007) Skelethon (2012) The Impossible Kid (2016)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	79/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
BBC	favorable[3]
Consequence of Sound	B[4]
Drowned in Sound	9/10[5]
HipHopDX	3.5/5[6]
NME	6/10[7]
Pitchfork Media	8.2/10[8]
PopMatters	[9]
Spin	7/10[10]
Tiny Mix Tapes	[11]

Music

The album is entirely produced by Aesop Rock himself.^[13] Guest appearances include Allyson Baker, Hanni El Khatib, Rob Sonic, Kimya Dawson, Murs, and Blueprint.^[14] The album's artwork was done by Aryz.^[15]

Aesop has described death as a recurring motif on the album, stating:

It felt like everything around me was dying: people, relationships, all plant life in my apartment, you name it—it's dead. That's where the Skelethon title came from, and imagery associated with shit dying is prevalent. That said, I don't think there are many "sad" songs. It's more just like "ahhh I'm exploding"—I want it to sound urgent.^[16]

Release

Music videos were created for "Zero Dark Thirty",^[17] "ZZZ Top",^[18] and "Cycles to Gehenna".^[19] A music video for "ZZZ Top" features the martial arts master Patti Li.^[20]

The album debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 with 14,000 copies sold in its first week.^[21] It has sold over 52,000 copies as of April 2016.^[22]

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Skelethon received an average score of 79% based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[1]

It was listed by HipHopDX as one of the "Top 25 Albums of 2012".^[23]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Leisureforce" (featuring Allyson Baker and Hanni El Khatib)	4:43
2.	"ZZZ Top" (featuring Allyson Baker)	4:15
3.	"Cycles to Gehenna"	4:00
4.	"Zero Dark Thirty" (featuring Rob Sonic)	3:21
5.	"Fryerstarter"	3:28
6.	"Ruby '81"	2:33
7.	"Crows 1" (featuring Kimya Dawson)	4:19
8.	"Crows 2" (featuring Rob Sonic and Murs)	2:30
9.	"Racing Stripes" (featuring Kimya Dawson)	3:23
10.	"1,000 O'Clock"	3:58
11.	"Homemade Mummy" (featuring Rob Sonic)	2:46
12.	"Grace" (featuring Hanni El Khatib)	3:38
13.	"Saturn Missiles"	3:37
14.	"Tetra"	4:41
15.	"Gopher Guts"	3:58
16.	"Dokken Rules" (deluxe edition bonus track; featuring Rob Sonic[24])	3:59
17.	"BMX" (deluxe edition bonus track; featuring Blueprint and Rob Sonic[24])	3:34

Charts

Chart (2012)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[25]	21
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[26]	1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[27]	5