The art of an album that’s made to be listened to from front to back feels a little lost these days. There’s something about that type of setup that allows a curated collection feel like a movie, where each track takes us to a different scene and in any other medium may be meant to be interacted with on some level visually.

One of the best, if not the highest bar for this type of vision and work, is 1999’s Prince Among Thieves, where producer Prince Paul, known for his early work with De La Soul, MF DOOM, and as a part of Handsome Boy Modeling School, took skits, a story, and the royalty of hip-hop from that era, from that concoction crafting a humorous, occasionally action filled tale about one man’s rise and fall in the streets, connecting it with an equally fabulous set of songs that moved with the narrative.

When 6 Cardinal and King Caiman came together for last December’s Go Ask Owsley, including the desire to release the collection as a somewhat lengthy 17:24 single track, it feels like they may have had this framework in mind. Going through the short run-time, we’re treated to scenes of being down in the dirt, the rise up from the bottom, and a few of horrorcore visuals that make the 8-song collection feel like a gritty independent film that gives more after each listen.

As the hazy television audio fades in and out, we’re hit at the start mainly from a set of blared out guitar riffs in the opening instrumental track, “Awake”, to which its name suggests, it is the moment I opened my eyes wide and my attention was since taken hostage, uncertain of what else was to come. A more perfect device couldn’t have been planted to bypass the senses through a little alarm, and to great effect.

From there onward, there’s a central tone of fighting back that 6 Cardinal strikes for the first half of the EP, becoming our positioned narrator onward, kicking off the second track with plenty of bombast.

“Arms locked/locked in position/flipping switches/kickin’ on Fort Knox/ they made our decision/ we’re just skiddin’ living in hard knocks”; Carrying a more frustrated voice in the delivery than a hostile one, Cardinal’s opening lines into the track “High Ground” strikes with a scene that feels like a last resort than an immediate go-to solution for a harder state of life, calling to arms with the fantasy and resting by the end on the chorus asking the audience directly where they’ll be when the potentially inevitable happens.

The follow-up two tracks, “Matt Murdock” and “Playing The Hand Dealt”, keep the themes of the prior alive through invoking vigilante sensibilities of crafting solutions by our own hands when all else fails in the former, with Travisty cueing up the disconnect between what people see versus what they don’t know (“kind funny how they’re talkin’/but never lived there), while also partly acknowledging, albeit begrudgingly at times, that we still have to make do with the reality we operate within in the latter.

From the halfway point, each track ongoing goes a little darker, where “My 6 Shooter Stay Busy” begins to add horror elements into the imagery, through depictions in lines that add a quick reference to one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest stories (“a telltale sign/our hearts were involved/a body up under the floor”) while maintaining an edict of any solution to stay on top goes. Afterward, “Clear Coat” veers off from the darker tones for a quick track, with Cardinal and Drone Phonetik emphasizing the art and mastery of the final touch, providing the message that anything worth doing is worth finishing in perfect form.

In the last two tracks, the tension is fully let loose and some of the most fun is had in this section. Rife with supernatural easter eggs in how Cardinal illustrates his movements, even going so far as to make the song names a part of adding to the flair, including in how “Pax Aeterna” is cut directly from a 2010’s vampire drama.

When taken together, the album is an episodic mix of fantasy fiction, diving occasionally into the realm of horror, with strong doses of reality and what it takes to survive in the darkest parts of our lives today. The structure of the beats and backing soundtrack of each song is distinct, allowing each track to be cut off and maintain much of its own flavor while still linking to what the main messaging illustrates. Shorter than a sitcom episode, but just long enough to leave listeners with something to chew on, Go Ask Owsley is a curated listen you can pop corn to while also drawing inspiration for the moments when the chips are down.

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