Much was made of Grieves jumping ship from Black Clover Records to indie powerhouse Rhymesayers Entertainment last Winter. His first EP on the label, while not much of a stylistic departure, features the most focused, fully-developed writing of his young career. The opening line on “Ghost Ship” (”The rain came down like a blanket and insulated the streetlights / turned the gutters to rivers and sailed away with my free time”) is emblematic of his undeniable growth. Backed by melancholic keys and jazzy, ambient tones on The Confessions Of Mr. Modest, Grieves’ wild ambition and songwriting capability finally converge.

Songs of misery and death are abundant on the new EP, which was produced by Budo, Sapient and Grieves himself. Fans of Atmosphere and Cage have latched onto Grieves as the latest disciple of rap music for the broken-hearted. He risks alienating a wider fanbase with credos like “Let’s die in the daytime and cry to its music,” but mass appeal is not likely on the itinerary anyways. Grieves is good at what he does, however dark it may be.

Labelmate P.O.S. steals the show on “War For The Crippled,” which boasts a raw, angry beat perfectly suited for a mournful ode to love lost. This track also displays the continued improvement of Grieves’ hooks, which are catchy for the preponderance of the record. Cunninlynguists mesh surprisingly well with Grieves’ flow on “Heatstroke,” a quality song save for the cheesy, woe-is-me chorus. Grieves doesn’t take many chances on The Confessions Of Mr. Modest and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But with his niche more or less secure on the independent rap scene, perhaps it is time he ventured out to cover a wider spectrum of topics.

With such lugubrious subject matter dominating the record, moments of levity and distraction are needed to keep it from being a strictly salt-on-wound affair. The lead single “Smile For The Blade” is Grieves’ carefully-aimed dart at naysayers. He may be taking message board shit-talking a little too seriously, but the track works well as a head-nodding, fuck-you anthem to his critics. The auto-tune shenanigans of “Out Of My Mind” attempt to lighten the mood with quirky references to Donkey Kong and Star Wars over an uptempo beat, though the track just winds up deteriorating into pseudo-club obnoxiousness. As much as that song shits the bed, it’s not nearly enough to take away from Grieves’ most solid effort to date.

Song you’ll remember in five years: “Ghost Ship”

Line you’ll remember in five years: “Never cheat life to cheat death” (from “Dirtnap Nightmares”)

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