Describing the music of up-and-comer Aaron Cartier is far from an easy task: It's A.G. Cook and EARTHGANG made into a deep-fried meme, it's 645AR sparring with JAHMED in a dark alley, it's a Beat by Jeff production launched into cyberspace. It's all of this and more, broadcast into the world behind the visage of a cuddly, Animal Crossing-inspired critter. Cartier's influences span the rap spectrum -- he inherits Playboi Carti's cyclical lyricism, the erratic vocals of Dreamville's "New South," and the headphone-shaking tremors of SSG Splurge's minimalism, yet adds a wry, ironic touch more reminiscent of Lil B. Under the PC Music umbrella, he's equally the beneficiary of the collective's warped, distorted hyper-pop -- a sound that proves make-or-break on the Aaron Cartier Best Dog LP.
Best Dog sees Cartier play the role of trap alchemist; the tape's success hinges on how well he balances the disparate styles he employs. When the stars align, his tracks bring new life to their frameworks: "WINDOW" offers a futuristic take on the Neptunes' signature swing, "98 DEGREES" compounds its punchiness with distorted 808s and indistinguishable shrieks, and SOPHIE-esque squelches shore up the grounded swagger of late highlight "SHINE." The peak of the pile, the Dylan Brady-assisted "GETITRIGHTBACK," acts like a modus operandi for Cartier's success. With clever implementation of genre-bridging techniques, the rapper produces some of the year's most vivid and forward-thinking anthems.
However, when improperly managed, these same techniques can completely sink the album's thinner cuts. The main culprit is the project's distorted sonics. While generally a boon, the excessive touches on "MOVES!" and "TOP DWN!" condemn the songs to a grating clumsiness. With many of the project's elements, the line is so fine that much of the album's resonance is immensely personal -- a whiny pitch and looping lyric gives "EVERYDAY" its infectious momentum, yet the same stroke pushes "KING TAP" into awkwardness. Best Dog's irony can prove an equally tough sell. "BANANAS" hits just enough absurdity to win favor, while the parodic flows of "TOP DWN!" result in a near-unlistenable headache.
The ideas here can be groundbreaking (and headphone-breaking, for that matter), but condensed into songs, they don't always hit the mark. For all its flaws, though, Best Dog is simply far too authentic, too inventive, too laugh-out-loud funny to really put down. Maybe Cartier is not quite best-in-show material yet, but this dog is undeniably an impressive contender.