I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
El-P
2007
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead is El-P’s dedication to the city of New York, where, as a Brooklyn resident, he was born and raised. And like much of the music that El-P creates, it’s also about despair, misery, and desperation. It’s the ballad of a city still living with the PTSD that was inflicted upon it after September 11, 2001
All the songs deal with death or dying. One is told from the perspective of a plane crashing, in another song, he personified a prison ship guard who falls in love with an inmate he has to execute. He also touches on concepts that ultimately kill us, whether they be vices or ignorance.
“This album is a response to five years of being on the precipice of World War 3; five more years of my city watching the city where I live getting its soul sucked out of it. It’s about fucking trudging through every day with the cloud of war over your head. You try not to think about, but every 10 minutes it pops into your head. You’re trying to trudge along through the world, just trying to live, and you keep clashing up against reality.” – Albumism
Stand-Out Tracks
Tasmanian Pain Coaster
The Overly Dramatic Truth
The League of Extraordinary Nobodies
Flyentology
Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)
