Listen to this: Armand Hammer’s Snakes & Ladders

I open with this caveat: I haven’t had a ton of time to digest the surprise Armand Hammer record that dropped this week. Billy Woods and Elucid rarely miss, though, and my initial reaction is that Snakes & Ladders ranks among their best. It doesn’t have the seamless throughline production-wise that their collabs with Alchemist (Haram and Mercy) do, but it’s still clearly the singular vision of the two men at its center.

Ominous noises dance in the background, blasts of noise add dashes of industrial rage, bass lines throb, and saxophone bleats call out to the sky. Woods and Elucid have always had excellent taste in production, but here they seem to have brought out the best in collaborators like clipping, Kenny Segal, and Child Actor. They’ve also successfully rallied them around a specific sound palette that keeps the record from actually sounding like it has beats from 11 different producers.

Of course, what makes Armand Hammer stand out from many of their contemporaries is their unique and verbose flows. Their lyrical mastery even makes guest rappers like $ilkmoney, who you can practically hear stalking around the mic as he seethes on “Risk,” up their game.

On songs like “Gravity,” Billy Woods navigates burgeoning romance with shocking directness, while also acknowledging obliquely how hard it can be to say what you mean.

Get it off your chest or put it to the side
As a preface, all due respect, I suggest
‘Cause it’s nothing more precious than time

On “Vespers,” he references Siouxsie and the Banshees and says “My nightcap three fingers of Fernet,” which is probably the first time I’ve ever heard Fernet Branca get a shoutout in a rap song.

“Graveside” is another highlight where it’s Elucid’s turn to get vulnerable:

I see you in the grave, I see you in the dirt
Shouts and hollers every which way, hurting
Darkness chase light
Steel shut close curtain

In some ways, this record feels like a culmination of what Billy Woods and Elucid have been working towards on their non-Alchemist-produced Armand Hammer records like We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, but also their recent solo records like Golliwog and Revelator.

Armand Hammer’s Snakes & Ladders is available on Bandcamp and most major streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Qobuz, and Deezer.

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