What many are hailing as Taylor P’s “masterpiece” began in 2008 just after the release of The July Sessions OR Everything Must Go, when he left his home in the Bay Area to go to school in Santa Cruz, CA. Taylor began work in his new home to no avail. After scrapping his first attempt at a new full-length record (keeping only one song on 8 ½, “Punch Drunk Love”) for not being different enough from old material, Taylor turned to Federico Fellini’s 1963 film, 8 ½, a film about the dreams and fantasies of a director trying to make a new film in the midst of a creative block. This inspired him to make an album about making an album and the stresses of life that surrounded it. The concept soon morphed into a commentary on not only the stresses and relationships of his own life, but on the overwhelming confusions of 21st century planet earth. Through the two and a half year writing and recording process, he traveled the country, playing shows ranging from stadium shows with Lupe Fiasco to headlining college house parties. The album would document his adventures over this time. Attempting to push creative boundaries and genre constraints, what resulted was a theatrical take on the creative process, romance and heartbreak, growing up, facing death and loss and the ever quickening spread of rapid technology amidst the rumors of an apocalypse just around the corner. Featuring several lengthy musical interludes, a nearly 20-minute rock rhapsody, and scenes and imagery ranging from a train through the World Trade Center ruins to the snowy streets of Midwest college towns and the firework-filled metropolitan rooftops of San Francisco, this apocalyptic road trip through traditional hip-hop, catchy pop songs, and psychadelic prog rock results in a most unconventional eighth and a half album from a young person in a seemingly collapsing world. And what’s most important, the party stays alive through it all.