The third full-length album from Minneapolis native P.O.S. falls into the same category as recent releases by El-P and Saul Williams, brilliantly unlistenable.

Let me clarify that by stating how utterly amazing those two releases were by the aforementioned artists, both in production and lyrical content. But you don’t just ride around to The Inevitable Rise & Liberation of Niggy Tardust! by Williams or El-P’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. And they aren’t necessarily Sunday morning records either. But along with P.O.S.’s Never Better they fit perfectly into my favorite musical genre – headphone music.

Only through headphones can such intricate and purposeful music be completely enjoyed.

P.O.S. is one of the rare hybrid artists whose music feels thoroughly authentic. He grew up on punk, hardcore, and hip-hop and he uses all of those musical influences to create a genuine sound that, although it veers, stays deeply rooted in traditional hip-hop. The melodies, the hooks, the lo-fi production are all evidence of his punk past. But what is completely undeniable about this Doomtree and Rhymesayers representative is the fact that he can absolutely rap his fucking ass off. Pick an artist that could ride the beat of Drumroll with such finesse and force.

A smartass with a gift for deft lyricism, P.O.S. doesn’t tread lightly when it comes to subject matter. Social commentary can often be boring if it isn’t treated with the same introspection and selfishness that we view our own reality with, and vice versa. But this album, as with his previous two, is full of perfectly constructed criticisms of life.

The intro song “Let It Rattle” is ideal for that slot on the album. It showcases his raw flow that gains momentum as the song builds while delivering brazen lines like “It’s a goddamn recession/show a little respect you Pfizer babies..” and “They out for presidents to represent them/you think a president could represent you/you really think a president would represent you/yeah right” (like MF Doom’s penchant for flipping cliché phrases, P.O.S. often plays off of famous rap lines to create a sarcastic viewpoint). As the song progresses the beat begins to work to a thunderous roar that you expect to break into a violent surge of drum patterns and sound effects, and in a way it does. But like P.O.S. on a whole, that violent surge you expect he’s building to is met with melody and subtle textures that create a beautiful chaos.

The two most straightforward hip-hop beats appear on “Savion Glover” and “Out of Category”, where the MC first displays his sarcastic lyrical dexterity, then storytelling abilities. Also, the Doomtree posse cut “Low Light Low Life” featuring Sims, Cecil Otter, and my hip-hop crush, Dessa, boasts a rolling horn and drum hook-friendly beat that serves the chemistry between the four MC’s well.

But if you want to know why I truly dig this album then you have to listen to “The Basics”. With a break-neck pace drumbeat and a gut-wrenching stuttered bass line as its foundation, this song sounds so melodic and utterly confusing all at the same time. But the brilliant part is how he neither juxtaposed his flow with the beat nor rhymed completely in synch, but used it as another part of the production instead. Now that’s not a new way of structuring your rhyme pattern, but to do it to this beat truly amazes me. What really sells this song though is its refrain. It epitomizes the ethos of the independent hip-hop scene, or really any independent scene that truly functions self-sufficiently. “We don’t want nothing from no one/we don’t need nothing you’re selling/we don’t see anything moving/we don’t have the time/we just need something to eat/we just need some place to sleep/we need the basics and baby we are gonna be alright”.

True indeed.

If you’re not currently a fan of P.O.S. then I encourage you to give him a try. Try hard though, because that’s what his music demands. Effort. And if it doesn’t work for you, then move on. But if you get it, if you find yourself in the midst of the chaos and you like the way the wind sounds then consider your effort rewarded.