The One Man Band Broke Up is a tricky beast. Ceschi Ramos, the rapper-singer-musician conducting the festivities, is telling a story. The story makes sense when the album is played start to finish, and the tone is consistent. Yet there are very few songs here that would make sense on their own, and though the beginning and end are both very strong, the middle has the tendency to sag. The most accurate way to describe the album is as an experience: almost like a musical novel, with plot and tone and instrumentation all relying on each other, and Ceschi as the consistent musical force with a knack for storytelling.

It should be said that The One Man Band… is an interesting idea for a concept album. The story revolves around a musician named Julius who, after a very miserable life, commits suicide. The way in which Ceschi tells Julius’ story is musically fascinating, sometimes sounding like a Depression-era blues ballad, then bouncing from gypsy folk to modern-day indie hip hop. The versatility displayed here makes a good metaphor for Julius’ One Man Band—just as a one-man-band can play eight instruments at once, so can Ceschi switch from singing to rapping and jump between genres with relative ease. The problem is that although the album is cohesive and makes sense as a whole, there are aren’t many songs that can hold up on their own.

Well, the first three tracks can. The title track kicks off the show with a hip hop/vaudeville hybrid lamenting the demise of Julius; just like the opening sonnet in Romeo and Juliet, Ceschi gives the tragedy away at the beginning. We know Julius isn’t going to make it, and the grotesque imagery in Ceschi’s lyrics speaks to this: “These deserts full of fractured limbs and scattered instruments,” “Don’t cry for the swatted flies/They loved what they did.” The theme is grim: “Loving what you did only got you so far through these years.” “Half Mast” is a cool piano-and-cymbal flavored blues lament, with another murderous lyric: “All the animals with their paws in traps/All the animals in this bar make me laugh.” The electricity gets turned on for “No New York,” full of anxious vocals and restless live drums. Ceschi is a capable singer, and at points he raps so fast that it sounds like his voice is digitally sped-up. Overall, the first three songs set a gritty and morbid tone for the rest of the album.

After this point, though, the energy begins to lag and the instrumentation gets muddled and murky. “Bridge” and “Serious Business” are both more sketches than songs. “Hangman” is too sluggish to pack a full punch. “My Disappointing Hip Hop Heroes” changes style completely—it could be a b-side from an early ‘00s Bright Eyes album, weirdly enough—and overall the middle is middling, save for the minimalistic beat and guitar of “Bad Jokes,” a song that seems like a combination of Atmosphere and Why?. It’s not so much that Ceschi loses his focus entirely, but the middle section of the album lacks the intensity needed to sustain the album’s energy.

Close to the end, “Swallowed Salt” finally re-achieves the initial pace. Ceschi’s vocals sound like a funeral dirge—“Long live the Great Short Lived, they all lived well”—eternally in mourning for a wasted talent, at which point we might start wondering who Julius is exactly supposed to be—a lost friend? a cautionary tale? Ceschi himself? “Julius’ Final Song” closes the album with Ceschi rapping over a relaxed, old school horn-accented soul-rock jam; it sounds like a tribute to the One Man Band when he was in his prime. The best moments come when the music clearly evokes a time and place: a 1930s carnival, a dirty street in Brooklyn, a dusty desert in the middle of nowhere. He’s got the skills to evoke setting, emotion, and character— that’s why the concept works so well here—and if the middle section of The One Man Band Broke Up were executed with a little more intensity, it would cross that pesky line between good and great.

Track List:
1. The One Man Band Broke Up
2. Half Mast
3. No New York
4. Lament For Captain Julius
5. Fallen Famous
6. Bridge
7. Serious Business
8. Hangman
9. Bad Jokes (feat. Shoshin, MiC K!NG, David Ramos)
10. For My Disappointing Hip Hop Heroes
11. Long Live (The Great Short Lived) (feat. Sole)
12. Swallowed Salt
13. Julius’ Final Song