It’s time for Earl Sweatshirt to get off the pavement and brush the dirt off of his psyche, as the Odd Future alum returns with his contribution to the pandemic-fuel genre. The aptly titled Sick! is the rapper’s fourth studio album. It maintains the short length of his preceding releases from 2018 and 2015, at about 25 minutes.

Earl has always thrived in depicting the solemn and isolated state of mind in which he’s perpetually trapped, so naturally the lockdowns heightened the intensity and bleakness one could come to expect. The album opens with some fat bass licks and warping synths on “Old Friend,” as he laments the state of the world coming apart amid the rise of COVID-19 and social unrest. He bares witness to what he sees as the predictable oncoming collapse of society.

It’s followed by “2010,” on which a shimmering synth melody pairs with some bold snares. Earl Sweatshirt raps about his ambition, and how the risks he took managed to bring him the success he has reaped. The title track comes in with a washed-out rattling percussion and piano melody and an ambient bass-heavy trap beat. Earl delivers his verse in an extremely lax manner as he observes the fragility of life with the constant presence of disease, drugs and violence in our world.

Zeloopers hops on the hook with “Vision,” which has a crackly piano melody that’s laid over another hot trap beat. Earl raps about how his success has benefitted the people closest to him in his life while critiquing the social ills that have been exacerbated because of the pandemic.

We get a light, jazzier number on “Tabula Rasa,” as hip-hop duo Armand Hammer takes the lead. Lucid opens the track with a punchy verse that expands on the album’s themes of increasing isolation, followed by Billy Woods, who absolutely shines as he comes to the mic. The song closes with Earl exploring his need to speak his truth on wax, and considering his parents’ activist roots, it’s no surprise the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. “Lye” drops a funky number pairing horns and bass as Earl assesses his place in hip-hop. It’s followed up with the braggadocios “Lobby (int).”

Warped strings, synths and bell tones vibrantly color “God Laughs,” which explores Earl’s rediscovery of religion, writer’s block and his connections to his family members’ mannerisms in the most comprehensive and complex number on the album. “Titanic” uses metaphors of joyrides and wrecked cars juxtaposed with the risks Earl has taken over the course of his career, opening with dripping synths that seemingly rise from the dead and come alive. The album closes on “Fire In The Hole,” as he raps about his isolation and his attempts to reach out to the people close to him and his fans. Sick! hits many of the beats fans have come to expect from the former prodigy of Tyler, The Creator.

Follow editor Tim Hoffman at Twitter.com/hipsterp0tamus.