Overall I find it hard to keep the attention through the 14 tracks. It's not a bad album, it's just not that good either.

Standouts "Daylight", "Flashflood" and "No regrets"

Deep, Intelligent, Funny, and most of all Dope
Aesop Rock, although the most reluctant of all to admit this, is a true plain-clothes visionary. Blockhead's production on most of the tracks is brilliant. His signatures consisting mainly of organic-sounding samples of asian-instrumentation, bag pipes, floating female vocals, etc., nicely complements Aesop's complex web of metaphors. "Labor Days" is the kind of album you can listen to a hundred times, still love it, and still discover new meaning and insight on every one of its tracks. This is truly a masterpiece of modern hip-hop. It is yet another indication that Def Jux and it's artists are quickly taking the stagnant mainstream by storm. But don't let all the talk of complexity and dictionary rhymes intimidate you. Aesop Rock speaks with a voice and style that is well-rounded enough to where it will surely touch even those who never crack a book. His lyrics are deep and emotional withought being soft, funny and witty without being goofy, as well as being hard and self-confident without being flashy. Aesop, in many of his interviews, can be heard saying that he "doesn't like being called a genius" or "the thinking-man's rapper". Someone once said that "a true genius does not know it himself" and concerning Aesop Rock I find that to be completely true.

good
You can tell he didnt have much a budget, but who cares. Its the beginning stuff thats usually the best and you get to hear what got them noticed. I enjoyed this album thoroughly, the beats were strange and clever. I prefer it to Bazooka Tooth whole heartedly. If you want a mellow underground aesop cd to chill to, this is the album

Godfather Dodgson and the Furious Pseuds
Pretentious, moi?... any "genre" that uses "intelligent" in its title is far more pretentious than a Lewis Carroll-referencing poseur could ever be. I don't blame poor old Aesop for that - like IDM, it is an unfortunate moniker that invites knock-downs. What the hell should we call other forms of hip hop - unintelligent hip hop? Stupid hip hop? Brainless hip hop? There's probably a good argument for using any of the above in the case of some of the bling bling gangsta tosh that regularly pollutes my ear canals. However, for other, more cerebral mic wielders, the "intelligent" prefix comes across as condescending and sanctimonious.

I'm glad that listening to Aesop makes his listeners feel good -different strokes for different folks, in the words of Sylvester Stewart. However, I still don't buy into this Aesop as a hip hop Dylan baloney (Bob Chill'em?). Like most rappers, close analysis of his lyrical outpourings reveals little of any substance beyond some cool sounding disses, mixed metaphors and bland aphorisms. Listen to how many times the average "intelligent" rapper uses "like" in a verse - any useless old metaphor is sprouted in an effort to add gravitas and profundity to otherwise meaningless wordplay. This may pass muster with the backpack-wearing hordes, but those with less vested in being "intelligent" and "underground" can easily see through the charade. In light of the nonsensical nature of much "intelligent" hip hop verse, maybe the works of Lewis Carroll are more integral to the genre that previously thought (I recommend the Cheshire Rap).

With no further ado, I hereby award the Order of the White Wig Slang Wolfgang to the previous reviewer for the slanderous act of daring to suggest that I was guilty of superfluous verbosity, intellectual posturing and flamboyant pretentiousness; charges that I vehemently and whole-heartedly deny.

What Hip hop should aspire to
Wow, this music fan d*ck from birmingham or wherever is really starting to get to me... he doesn't seem to realise that the reason we like good intellectual hip hop like this is the same reason i suppose he reads good literature rather than mills and boons or danielle steele... when i listen to aesop throw down some brilliantly clever phat sounding line it makes me feel damn good and on op of that i get to listen to some awesome Blockhead beats... and really the break from the hoes and b*tches dominating mainstream hip-hop is more than welcome, hip-hop is a tool to let people know what our worlds about just like poetry or great novels. Bob Dylan did it with rock and Aesop Rock is doing it with hip-hop. it's amazing when you just listen to the music how inspiring it sounds and you realize that it's the music fan who sprouts lewis carolls real name and the most verbose sentences since english class that comes of as pretentious. but anyway give this one a spin... i'm sure you'll like it...
Aesop Rock doesn't try to contend with rap music's commercial villains. Instead, on Labor Days, his first release for the Def Jux label, Aesop ignores the mainstream and displays an unshakable confidence rarely seen in independent hip-hop. Although a staccato, Dadaist delivery is his trademark, subsequent listens reveal his storytelling gifts and rhyme structures to be thick with purpose. There's also a sensitivity only hinted at on Float, his first mass release. On "Daylight," he informs, "Life is not a bitch / Life's a beautiful woman," while "No Regrets" tells the life story of a woman who only communicated through her drawings until her death in a nursing home. Thanks to production by Omega One, Blockhead, and Aesop himself, Labor Days is built upon strings, loping bass lines, nodding beats, and expert programming. Surely, this is a fine example of hip-hop's formidable underground. --Arno Kazarian