The last 6 years have been tough for Thundercat but equally transformative. He gives us a full range of emotions, memories of Mac Miller and work with a new producer for another career-best album.
There has never been a time when Thundercat has not given us something absolutely stellar to digest in terms of music. From his personality to addictions and the things that have made him, Stephen Lee Bruner has been living and breathing music since the beginning. He’s had roles in albums and songs you’ll revere for life. A close aide of Mac Miller’s and someone who has transformed his life, we get his latest album. Distracted drops exactly 6 years to the day after his dedication to Miller, It Is What It Is. We’re going to jump from introspection to overstimulation on this one, and it’s glorious.
The return, to a place that wasn’t
This is one of the first albums Thundercat has had a limited creative direction from Flying Lotus (FlyLo). Choosing to work with brilliant producer and musician Greg Kurstin (Adele, Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Beyoncé, and Beck), there is a brighter polish to his sound that was a well-rounded change. Compositions have a great deal of collaborators, while having Thundercat’s countertenor and six-string bass setting the canvas for most of the songs. He delves into the world of gaming, quiet thought, reminiscence and experimentation on Distracted, and it surpasses any kind of ride he’s taken us on in the best way.
Just take a look at the opening track, Candlelight. It has jazz notes with us chasing him in the circle of fifths. Even the vocals take their own route, while complex bass motifs warm the atmosphere with a cosy orange hue. That’s what this track made me feel: orange, the light that makes me feel like receding into nothing. The popular single with Tame Impala, No More Lies, comes in next. Though Kevin Parker has a very unique sound, Thundercat can dominate a track just by being in the ‘background’ registers. Like other pop songs that Bruner features in, he’s giving that funky touch to it along with his choice of chord and note progressions.
Keeping the bass low, not high
The thrill of listening to a brilliant bass player is always how much they impact the song. Play any great funk/blues/rock/R&B/soul song without bass, and the spirit of the song is missing. She Knows Too Much is probably Mac Miller’s last recording with Thundercat, and it’s as transparent as he’s ever promised to be as an artist. Mac raps matter-of-factly, then reflects on his own line a bar later. “Man, that was a little harsh…” he says, in a song which is a conflict between desire and repulsion. Though this song had been leaked years ago, the finished version sounds different. Perhaps the raw version that we heard as a leaked audio file almost felt like something out of Miller’s audio recordings with a sneak peek into a recording session. Thundercat does his due diligence to capture every part of Miller’s character, the funny, weird, sharp and reckless.
I Did This to Myself has that bass line that makes you want to learn the instrument. Flying Lotus gets the first feature for this album, and Bruner is light, breezy and groovy on this song. There are microtonal harmonics that keep switching in this song – actually making the bassline essential to the song’s original spine. Lil Yachty’s verse is also fun, where he’s dropped by to just share his thoughts. I love it when hip-hop becomes a polished rant, with rhymes and breaks tailored so well into thoughts that you realise it’s an extension of their personalities. A$AP Rocky crafts his bars for Funny Friends, a warmer, slower track which allows him to play around with his flow. Though some of these sound like interludes, they glide from one song to another like a story.
Shifting to the pop sensibility
What Is Left to Say has a melody line that will show you Thundercat touch on his Erykah Badu roots while having a thorough understanding of the groove. There’s no way you’ll not listen to this song more than 5 times and still won’t get the nuanced melodies that are floating below the surface. You’ll love the movie, anime and video game references sprinkled across his album, like his collections all the way from The Golden Age of Apocalypse, Drunk and Apocalypse. Thundercat’s solo songs have their own charm to it, whether it’s him describing a poignant feeling or experimenting with grooves and flows, its worth the depth of stage he gives. From the Flying Lotus production years to what Greg Kurstin is highlighting, you can hear a brighter sound that makes his voice and bass stand out at a frequency.
The world as seen by Sober Steve
The Channel Tres and WILLOW collaboration shows how versatile Thundercat remains, with his chops being explored through incredible ambient atmospheres and vocals. His switch from Steve Bruner to Sober Steve shows a whole other range of colours and hues. This is not a musician abiding by how alcohol used to make him feel and focus – the way he admitted was a vice he got hooked on. His name might be from the cartoon that we were all obsessed with at one time, but there’s no role he plays clearer and realer than this moniker. Listening to A.D.D. Through the Roof is a whole other spatial zone, attributing butterflies to being in the fold of reality.
When you listen to Great Americans, you’ll know this entire range of self-reflection through melody. He says at the end, “I’m undiagnosed.” From bored to overwhelmed to bouncing within the spectrum, he is now dealing with his emotions without a spirit dulling his senses. This is coming to terms with this new focus, a new chapter in his life with exciting outcomes. When he is leaning into this pop sound, he always remembers his hooks from R&B and jazz that highlighted and pivoted his career to where it is. Closing with a moment of asking for closure, Thundercat makes an emotive overlay on You Left Without Saying Goodbye. The unpredictable vocal lines and synth progressions make for an incredible bookend.
Listen to this album to ironically gain a new layer of focus while remaining distracted:
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