Fashion Week (album)
Fashion Week is an instrumental album[1] by experimental hip hop group Death Grips. It was self-released, available for free, on January 4, 2015, via Third Worlds, without any prior announcement.[2] It was the band's first release after their supposed disbandment in 2014, and also the first release to not feature vocals from frontman MC Ride, which was a major factor in its mixed-to-positive critical reception.
| Fashion Week | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | January 4, 2015 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 47:47 | |||
| Label | Third Worlds | |||
| Producer |
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| Death Grips chronology | ||||
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Fashion Week was released on vinyl as the first LP in a 2LP package alongside Death Grips' instrumental EP Interview 2016 for Record Store Day 2016.
Background
Fashion Week was described by the group as a "soundtrack."[1] A leaked .ZIP file was shared via Reddit in late-2014, containing 6 tracks from the album and 2 unreleased tracks, but was initially dismissed by fans as fake.[3] The song titles, follow as: "Runway J", "Runway E" and so on; acrostically spelling out the phrase "JENNY DEATH WHEN", in reference to the clamor surrounding the upcoming second disc (Jenny Death) of The Powers That B,[4] which was eventually released two months later.
The album art features an image of artist Sua Yoo, who designed the band's cover art for The Money Store, sitting in a large chair located at the Silver Legacy Resort & Casino in Reno, Nevada.[5]
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 74/100[6] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Exclaim! | 7/10[7] |
| Pitchfork | 6.6/10[8] |
| Spin | 7/10[9] |
| Sputnikmusic | 2.5/5 |
Fashion Week received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 74, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 5 reviews.[6]
Calum Slingerland of Exclaim! suggested the lack of Ride's performances made the album very accessible to new listeners of Death Grips,[7] and Spin critic Dan Weiss, comparing Fashion Week to Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails, wrote that while the album is fairly linear, it still has the group's "astoundingly dark and imaginative sonic palette."[9] The Quietus critic Calum Bradbury-Sparvell described the album as "the most vibrant and least menacing collection of tracks Death Grips have released."[10]
One recurring criticism of Fashion Week was the absence of MC Ride's vocals,[8][11][7] with one reviewer suggesting that the instrumentals "stagnate" on their own.[11]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Runway J" | 4:09 |
| 2. | "Runway E" | 3:14 |
| 3. | "Runway N" | 2:42 |
| 4. | "Runway N" | 3:01 |
| 5. | "Runway Y" | 4:01 |
| 6. | "Runway D" | 4:43 |
| 7. | "Runway E" | 3:25 |
| 8. | "Runway A" | 3:37 |
| 9. | "Runway T" | 2:36 |
| 10. | "Runway H" | 4:29 |
| 11. | "Runway W" | 3:29 |
| 12. | "Runway H" | 3:35 |
| 13. | "Runway E" | 2:21 |
| 14. | "Runway N" | 2:01 |
| Total length: | 47:48 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "01 Voco Beat 13 Dark" | 4:45 |
| 2. | "02 Darko Drum 12" | 3:59 |
| 3. | "03 Day Loop 06" | 2:57 |
| 4. | "03 Golden 07" | 4:02 |
| 5. | "05 Red Moon 06 Dark" | 3:01 |
| 6. | "06 Chateau New Dark" | 2:36 |
| 7. | "07 Lepso Arp 08 03.03.14" | 4:09 |
| 8. | "08 New Bass Loop 08 Outboard 2.23.14" | 3:39 |
| Total length: | 76:59 | |
Personnel
- Death Grips
- Zach Hill – drums
- Andy Morin – keyboards, programming
- Nick Reinhart - guitar (Track 12)
References
- "Death Grips release surprise instrumental album Fashion Week". The Guardian. January 5, 2015. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
- Young, Alex (January 5, 2015). "Death Grips release instrumental album Fashion Week — listen". Consequence of Sound. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
- Stubbs, Dan (January 5, 2015). "Death Grips release surprise instrumental 'soundtrack' album – listen". NME. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
- Phillips, Amy (January 4, 2015). "Death Grips Release Surprise Instrumental Album Fashion Week". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on August 2, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
- "r/deathgrips - Went and found the chair on fashion week's cover (with my backpack for scale)". reddit. 7 January 2015.
- "Fashion Week by Death Grips Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
- Slingerland, Calum (January 9, 2015). "Death Grips - Fashion Week". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
- Patrin, Nate (January 13, 2015). "Death Grips - Fashion Week". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- Weiss, Dan (January 6, 2015). "Death Grips Rise From the Dead With the Explosive 'Fashion Week'". Spin. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
- Bradbury-Sparvell, Calum (January 15, 2015). "Death Grips - Fashion Week". The Quietus. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
- Jordan M. (January 12, 2015). "Review: Death Grips – Fashion Week". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved November 19, 2018.