Aesop Rock & Blockhead: Trouble Mountain
Aesop Rock & Blockhead's Trouble Mountain turns Poconos anxieties into something stranger, connecting to earlier themes of work and survival on Labor Days.
Tracklist
- Trouble Trouble — Aesop Rock & Blockhead
- Daylight — Aesop Rock
Transcript
Trouble Trouble — Aesop Rock & Blockhead
Aesop Rock and Blockhead built a fictional resort with a catch: you bring your troubles along. Their album Trouble Mountain draws on Poconos getaway commercials from their New York childhoods. On “Trouble Trouble,” Treble critic Jeff Terich reads the mountain as a heap of baggage, trauma and life’s indignities. Aesop wishes a Saint Bernard would bring him cocoa, then names baked brie and mushroom risotto. The album’s own description takes the wider view: at this resort, everyday anxieties turn into something stranger. Hear Trouble Trouble by Aesop Rock & Blockhead.
Daylight — Aesop Rock
Now back to “Daylight,” Aesop Rock’s track on Labor Days. Treble critic Jeff Terich counts it among Aesop’s celebrated collaborations with Blockhead, who produced Trouble Mountain. The new album’s description traces their collaborations back to Labor Days, naming work, survival, alienation, and the desire to outrun them as recurring themes. Hear Daylight by Aesop Rock.
The resort is new, but the collaboration has a history. Hearing “Daylight” after “Trouble Trouble” leaves you with that history as well as the mountain.