You & Yer Good Ideas

“Left-of-center Florida MC has enough good ideas to succeed… Pitched somewhere between two brands of nerdy, white-boy rap, the pop-savvy stylings of Beck and Anticon’s inscrutability – the debut of Andy Bothwell, a.k.a. Astronautalis, holds together its verbal flotsam and jetsam with a smart sense of song structure. You & Yer Good Ideas is full of non-hip-hop instrumentation, from white noise to slide guitar, and Bothwell’s strangled, spoken drawl takes things even farther ahead, but there’s usually a scruffy little hook to reel you in, as well-intentioned and endearing as a homemade birthday card.” – Alternative Press

“Worn out from the tireless braggadocio associated with his former status as a respected battle rapper, the Dallas-based lyricist has applied his verbal acumen to delicate arrangements whose cadence is propelled by sampled strings, guitars and pianos. Songs like “Somethin’ For the Kids” do a superb job of building layers of sound that deconstruct at just the right moments to accentuate his yarn spinning tales of enjoying a dozen doughnuts with Tupac Shakur. The battle for hip-hop bragging rights has traditionally been forged from fronts on the shores of the east and west coasts, but we see in artists like Astronautalis the breakdown of borders, both geographically and stylistically, deep in the heart of Texas.” – The Hub Weekly