MF DOOM: Expektoration Live

DOOM has an awful lot of chutzpah releasing another live album, in light of his notoriety for furtively sending mask-wearing impostors to perform in his place in front of his endlessly indulgent fans. Then again, if he didn’t have excessive audacity, he never would have engaged in such a shameless deception in the first place. For better or worse, he seems to be playing it relatively straight on the fans-only Expektoration Live while performing smartly chosen selections from Operation: Doomsday, Mm… Food, Take Me To Your Leader, and Madvillainy, whose sinuous grooves lend themselves particularly well to live performance. Onstage, his sometimes-winded delivery reverts back to the singsong flow of his KMD days. Nothing on Expektoration trumps the studio versions, but the disc serves as a potent reminder of the depth and richness of DOOM’s catalog, while interludes, plus an intermission involving the difficulties of learning Klingon, illustrate DOOM’s warped sense of humor. Ever the trickster, he ends Expektoration with an intriguingly ambiguous line that seems to reference his concert chicanery while throwing everything that came before it into question: “Once you have their money, you never give it back.” It’s an acceptable sonic snack, but can we finally have that second dose of Madvillainy, please