Just Because - No Regrets

"No Regrets" opens with Aesop Rock's stoner-drawl making jeers at Lucy, the strange girl who draws all day. Rock then reveals her story, which begins on the pavement and turns to canvas as she ages. Lucy embraces her hermitry for the sake of her art, politely turning away offers for playtime and lunch all her life, before dying alone (and undiscovered) in a hospital surrounded by her works. In this, Rock serves up a familiar tale, one where a brutal artist sacrifices supplemental pleasures for a life well-lived. But the twist comes in the Tim Burton-esque atmosphere ellicited by sampled string-plucks and ghostly vocal melodies. Rock calls us to live as if we're dying, but puts no gloss on the cost. The implication is not that we may fail, but that we may prevail beyond our wildest dreams, turn outcast and die with few or no friends to give a damn.