Gawd Bless the Faceless Cowards teams the raving prophet/ranting paranoid lunatic emceeing of Circus with the mad-scientist sonic creations of producer Andre Afram Asmar. The result is a mind-bending lyrical and musical journey. Circus' central lyrical preoccupations are UFOs, aliens (especially E.T., whom he seems to consider comparable to Jesus), God, Jesus, the wreckage that is the current state of world affairs and an unnamed woman who dumped him because her friends and family considered him a loser. Many of these topics frequently collide on the same song, making for stream-of-consciousness rapping that can leave the listener's mind whirling. Asmar underscores Circus' brain-twisting lyrics with a collage of electronic outerspace beats, sci-fi movies sound bites, throbbing bass and thudding drum beats and, on one track, what sounds like someone beating on a pipe with a hammer. Standout tracks include "Sex in Space," "Biblical Proof of UFOs," "Who Killed Me," "Smell the Roses," and "Redeemer." Gawd Bless the Faceless Cowards is as far from mainstream hip-hop as can be, which in this case is a good thing. - Tucson Citizen |