Tax Factor.
[Video][Website]
[5.75]
Anthony Easton: It takes brass ovaries to not pay your taxes for years, and then go to Sony and ask them for millions of dollars for a five song EP, and then on the first track of that EP become disgusted with global capitalism. The song is a bit ragged, it’s been run out to the market fast, and her delivery, with its manic edge, marks a kind of awareness of the aesthetics of speed; it’s double tracked and one of those tracks is played at chipmunk speed. The lyrics are so dense that some of them say really interesting things, really important things — thinking of the global capital market like Mac Heath is a fantastic idea, as is the idea of coke as the prime drug of our economic core (but that was done better by Brett Eason Ellis), as is the idea of capital as cancer (which was done better by Sontag in Illness as Metaphor), and calling out hip-hop culture, reminding her community that their love of Louis Vuitton has any number of real problems, including that it perpetuates a kind of slavery. It seems to be such a vital piece in the culture right now, so symbolic, that to treat it as a song seems difficult.
[5]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Last week, Lauryn Hill posted an iTunes link to her first new material since 2010. On her Tumblr, however, she referred to it as a “piece” — denoting that it was more than just a mere song, but art by a real artist, rushed out as a “Compulsory Mix” due to a combination of legal and label concerns. The next day, she was sentenced to three months in prison. The release of “Neurotic Society” is burdened with bitterness, seeing as Hill created it in a failed effort to pay off a large amount of money to the federal government. You want to like it, if not because Hill’s been absent from music for so long, then because of the surrounding circumstances. “Neurotic Society” is fascinating, but it’s still something of a rush job, a few drafts away from completion. The Imperial March strings would have been the first thing to go — way too unsubtle — but you wonder if Hill would consider rerecording her vocals. Hearing her rap again is almost worth hearing her recite Adbuster editorials in double-time monotone. Almost. But you imagine her word-tumbling flurry on the world’s many follies would surely stay as is, despite being an early draft. That’s the type of stubbornness that makes her a real artist, and that’s the type of stubbornness that makes her an artistic liability.
[6]
Iain Mew: I’m a long way from digesting much of what Lauryn Hill is saying, or even being sure how possible that will be, but I love how “Neurotic Society” sounds. The swirl of melody around her and the distorted voices are like she’s kicking up a tornado on her own through her force of belief and speed of her words.
[8]
Alfred Soto: A quick listen to “Lost Ones” reminded me of what we’ve missed since her withdrawal from public life. Reciting polysyllabic Latinates over a nominal backbeat may have the same effect on other listeners. Like a Beltway hack touring the Sunday talk show circuit, she hopes the fog of words will both adduce her intelligence and hide her vacuity, which is why a charge of tax evasion is so appropriate.
[2]
Ian Mathers: The gnashing production is at its most beautiful during the verse breaks, but it’s great throughout; a seething, forceful backdrop for Hill to emerge again against, on as much of her own terms as possible. The idea that her (mostly inarguable) criticisms of modern western society are somehow rude, more problematic than the problems themselves, or grounds for mental health concerns would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so chilling. That makes the track worthy of respect; it’s the production and Hill’s firebreathing performance that makes it great as well.
[8]
Brad Shoup: Ms. Hill reminds me of Doc Corbin Dart, another musician too moral to function within the day-to-day bullshit. Some people are just wired Manichaean, and for every awesome moment, there are a thousand little exhaustions. Rohan Marley has said that she writes at all times and on all surfaces; “Neurotic Society” could well be all that writing in one four-minute shot. Everyone’s indicted in this thesaurus of charges. On her biggest hit, she took a second to assure us that “Lauryn is only human.” Now, she takes on an alien pitch, as if she’s on the spaceship, pronouncing our misdeeds before she blows the planet away. The high-stepping chorus carries the seeds of excitement, even as the cymbals distort and the vocals must be scooped out. Weirdly, there’s no thrill in Ms. Hill’s gymnastics: it’s so much slam poetry read off a well-worried notepad. Still, she has my sympathies, but I know how much that’s worth.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Hill has so much to say that it’s a shame she’s been nearly absent from record. “Neurotic Society” goes some (in fact, a lot more than some) way of catching us up on her thoughts. It’s tempting to slow the track down or read along with lyrics, but that would kill some of the shock; a line like “pot calling the kettle narcissist” sounds more profound out of Hill’s mouth than it looks on a screen. The way this is put together makes it sound like she’s got fifty lines pithier and cleverer. Ultimately she doesn’t, and is in need of a better internal editor. The verses land lots of blows (some good, some not so good) but those strings are ham-fisted.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: The urgent, cluttered production apparently matches what’s going on in her head, if the fevered, Last Poets-style word-spew she’s delivering is any indication. She’s not wrong about any of it, and she’s perfectly within her rights to dress her ideas in the clothes of her choosing; but listeners have rights too.
[6]