MC Lars: The Zombie Dinosaur LP review
With a rich history of three studio albums and opening for Snoop Dogg, MC Lars has been dubbed a pioneer of nerdcore hip hop. Adding to the lineage of Lars’ own company, Horris Records, The Zombie Dinosaur LP was amazingly funded by a Kickstarter.
I can’t say I’m especially familiar with the genre of nerdcore but I’m pretty sure this is not the way it’s supposed to be done. Since his first album, The Laptop LP, MC Lars has simply strayed from the vision that once became so popular.
While the album is clearly satire, the humor within it just misses the mark. The title “Zombie Dinosaur” should tell you enough- the jokes died awhile ago… and were brought back. With as dry as humor runs nowadays, over-explained routines just aren’t what sells.
Instrumentally, the album is all over the place. Slower songs have a nice cohesiveness, but upbeat tracks are an eclectic mix of sound effects that fails to have real flow. Furthermore, genuinely deep, meaningful songs are scattered throughout the satirical songs. It’s confusing, and the songs just don’t belong on the same album.
The only thing that pushes the vocals into the “ugh” category is the over-zealous use of autotune. A talented and a fun-loving rapper may be behind it, but we just can’t hear it. Granted, some credit must be given to self-produced artists, so we can’t be overly harsh.
I feel as though The Zombie Dinosaur LP just doesn’t represent the skill Lars clearly possesses. We can only hope his next album brings back the element that made the internet fall in love with him the first time.
Rating: 6/10
-Kelly Fox