Garbology

File under “things that seem like they should’ve happened years ago, but somehow hadn’t until now”: Garbology is the first album-length collaboration between the two underground hip-hop veterans, despite the fact that they’ve known each other since college, and that Aesop’s biggest tracks to date have been Blockhead productions. Here, the latter’s beats are heady as ever; meanwhile, Aes has grown into the role of the curmudgeonly hermit, digging through the landfill of late-capitalist culture with no small amount of despair: “I hate praising net worth over legwork/I hate ceding all power to the extroverts/I find the current social architecture hell on earth,” he spits on “That Is Not a Wizard”. It isn’t easy making existential anguish sound this good.