Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock announces new album 'Spirit World Field Guide,' shares new song/video

Aesop Rock has been pretty prolific lately — last year he teamed with TOBACCO for an album as Malibu Ken and this year he released an EP of music for the video game Freedom Finger and the standalone single “Rogue Wave” — but he hasn’t released a proper full-length album since 2016’s The Impossible Kid. That changes with Spirit World Field Guide — his first album in four and a half years — on November 13 via Rhymesayers (pre-order). It’s a 21-song album that a press release calls “a concept album of sorts” and “arguably the most expansive and ambitious work” he’s released yet.

Expect “firsthand know-how of the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe, rife with hallucinatory images of killer eels, magic spells, and people on the run, peppered among anecdotes, recipes, survival tips, warnings, maps, drawings, and more,” the press release continues, and Aesop himself says, “If you are among the countless individuals who find themselves feeling both dead and alive at the same time, the information contained within may serve as an invaluable asset to your journey. Godspeed and good luck.”

The first taste is “The Gates,” and that comes with a psychedelic Rob Shaw-directed video that uses illustrations by Justin “Coro” Kaufman, who also designed the album artwork. It sounds like classic Aesop Rock while also sounding futuristic and new and you can check it out for yourself below.

Tracklist
1. Hello From the Spirit World
2. The Gates
3. Button Masher
4. Dog at the Door
5. Gauze
6. Pizza Alley
7. Crystal Sword
8. Boot Soup
9. Coveralls
10. Jumping Coffin
11. Holy Waterfall
12. Flies
13. Salt
14. Sleeper Car
15. 1 to 10
16. Attaboy
17. Kodokushi
18. Fixed and Dilated
19. Side Quest
20. Marble Cake
21. The Four Winds

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