Artist: Heron
Album: Mutiny
Rating: 3/5
“Snap your fingers if you hate this song” encourages Heron, spitshining America’s first principle. Heron’s Mutiny is a dark exploration of worldwide underbellies and Hip Hop’s shadow. “I need ya’ll like I need a gun to my head” he states on the ironically titled “You Inspire Me.” Frivolous speech weighs down the work on a handful of song-intros; the sagging is momentary, however, as the beats bring fluidity. His best ones are the raw and rustic grooves, rather than the synthetic sort, and luckily he seems to favor them himself.
“You’re all speaking a lie like Bibles with a white Christ” says Heron of everybody’s favorite bled-white Galilean. As a wit and a rhyme flipper, Heron excels. He concludes “Hip Hop’s in the Building” with four short bars stuffed with a shopping bag of words ending in “ick” and “ix” (17 or 19 instances, depending on how you count ‘666’).
“Moshpit” is a dirty, ambient key-based joint. It is the sort of gem that teeters and topples, but ultimately rides. The noticeable static on the orchestral loop of “Hip Hop’s in the Building” is another raw touch; it is not the keyboard based static, but warm genuine static. The orchestrations come to a frightening apex on “Press Your Luck”, a violin-pluck joint – quite a propeller. “If you’re feeling lucky punk then press your luck,” suggests Heron amidst this ridiculous loop.
I like the 80s horn sound of “No Love”, as well as the introspective bongo groove of “Fireflies”, but clustered here, at the end of the record, they seem as though they are juxtaposed because they didn’t fit elsewhere on the album, not because they were the best one-two combo to complete Mutiny.
“Slave to the stage/Slave to the mic” proclaims a proud Heron of his positive addiction. His track record emboldens the claim; he is listed on many tracks as playing “all instruments” and even donates a guitar solo to “The Hate Song.” Heron has his hands on this record and leaves nice fingerprints.
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