The Farmin’ EP by Lexodus is a mish-mash of Hip-Hop, Jazz and Psych Rock with fleeting moments of genius bogged down by unoriginal lyrics that think they’re more clever than they actually are. The 7 track EP is at its best when it’s keeping it simple with repetitive hooks, and electronic rhythms.
The EP opens with ‘Fataleyiza’, arguably the strongest song on the EP which sounds reminiscent of Fugees ‘How Many Mics’ meets Portishead’s ‘Glory Box’. I can’t knock the production of these tracks, it’s top-notch. The vocals are crisp and clear, with sharp delivery and a likable charisma. The instrumentals are interesting and vibrant. It’s a shame that they’re hidden behind lyrics that think they have so much to say but in fact, say nothing at all. Lots of complex words for the sake of using complex words juxtaposed with ridiculous overly simple rhyming couplets such as pairing “sauce” with “source”. Every second line feels disconnected, almost like they repeatedly reached for the rhyming dictionary when writing it. Instead of using a lived experience, we’re left with a caricature of what it is they meant to say without any of the potency or personal meaning. Later in the track when Lexodus told me to “push the stop button“, I almost did.
The second track ’47’ sounds like a The 1975 B-Side until the vocal comes in. Skip.
The third track is about a failed night out, in which our titular protagonist gets hammered, slimes over women in the club and then makes his way home for food and a nap. Each song is a snapshot into an interesting topic but never goes any deeper than face value. The lyrics are too concerned with sounding intelligent to consider whether they’re actually words worth saying.
The fifth track ‘OMNI‘ is an adequate entry except for one glaring issue, the best line in the song has been plucked directly from Beyoncé’s Partition (‘I sneezed on the beat and the beat got sicker‘ – I see you). This invalidates the whole track about how Lexodus has bars when they’ve had to take a line from another artist.
The penultimate track ‘Off The Wall‘ starts with “Listen to that funky fly toad, about to blow his lyrical load“. Skip.
The last track ‘Toast’ is about bragging rights within the Hip-Hop community and it does just that. After a 40-second long honky-tonk piano intro that feels severely out of place, we launch into 3+ minutes of bragging about a lyrical prowess that has not been evidenced throughout the entire EP. If it’s supposed to be ironic, it is.
Overall, the EP is a big swing and a miss. Each track has an interesting flavour, bold charismatic delivery and fantastic production by Pete Smith who has also worked with Sting and Stevie Wonder. But even the production couldn’t save Lexodus from themselves, the lyrics are bloated and often uninteresting. The only time my ears perked up was when I heard a Beyoncé lyric in the mix. The whole project would have benefited from fewer tracks and a more focused writer. There’s an interesting band in there somewhere, they’ve just yet to find it.
The Farmin’ EP is out now.
