Spirit World Field Guide is a compendium of supernatural tales, oddities, and surrealist narratives, preceded by an introduction in which
Aesop Rock suggests that the listener skip to whichever section is most relevant to their spirit world experience, but still recommends listening to the entire record for context. The songs, as densely detailed as anything in
Aesop's catalog, exuberantly describe fantastic scenarios, both real and imagined, and serve as chapters in a sort of survival manual. More autobiographical than it seems on the surface, the album draws from the rapper's real-life travels, including revelatory trips to Cambodia, Thailand, and Peru, as well as his own day-to-day experiences, like dealing with pests or his ongoing struggles with back pain. Even in these instances, he finds creative ways to express his frustration, paranoia, and isolation, as on "Dog at the Door," a brief, amusing yarn about unexplained dog barking that comically returns to variations of the line "it's a trap," or "Kodokushi," a deceptively playful-sounding tune about heading towards a lonesome death. The record's more elaborate epics include the Calvin and Hobbes-esque cardboard rocket fantasy "Button Masher," the Ayahuasca-fueled self-discovery quest "Pizza Alley," and the restless, insect-riddled travelogue "Holy Water."
Aesop handled nearly all of the album's production himself, with punk blues singer/songwriter
Hanni el Khatib and
Leon Michels (
El Michels Affair) co-producing the fractured "Sleeper Car" and a few other musicians providing additional instrumentation. The backing tracks lean towards fuzz guitar-driven, organ-heavy psych-rock, best matching
Aesop's brainy cadences on lurching, suspenseful cuts like "Gauze" and "Salt," while "Crystal Sword" and "Coveralls" are oscillating space funk. By the end of the album,
Aesop essentially says that he expects his death will be uneventful, and that it's important to be as active and exploratory as possible while one is alive. ~ Paul Simpson