Single Review by William Ruben HelmsMar 10, 202620:30

New Audio: Thundercat Teams Up with WILLOW on Atmospheric, Quiet Storm-like “ThunderWave”

Acclaimed JOVM mainstay Thundercat will be releasing his fifth studio album — and first album in over six years — Distracted through Brainfeeder on April 3, 2026. Distracted was created in close collaboration with super producer Greg Kurstin with additional production from Flying Lotus, Kenny Beats and The Lemon Twigs. The new album also features contributions from an all-star cast that includes A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Tame Impala, Channel Tres, Lil Yachty and a previously unreleased collaboration with Mac Miller.

Thematically, the album vividly captures the uneasy tension between overstimulation and introspection. Thundercat is deeply skeptical of technological “progress,” especially the way it has narrowed our collective imagination instead of expanding it. He jokes about Star Trek and childhood dreams of space travel, then pivots to the horrible anticlimax of reality: drones without lasers, phones that only feature upgraded cameras, innovation reduced to spying and access. The disappointment isn’t about just gadgets; it’s about a vision of the world we were promised versus what we got right now. Sure, some forms of deep space travel may be difficult, if not impossible, but we don’t have flying cars or smart-alecky robots. We barely have high-speed trains or anything else.

While the drawbacks of constant distraction are evident in today’s attention deficit economy, a true idiosyncratic like Thundercat can identity the ways in which it used to one’s advantage. You can’t spell “daydreams,” without dreams. “Sometimes you need to be distracted to focus in a different way,” Thundercat says. What the JOVM mainstay wants listeners to take from the album is remarkably, disarmingly simple: “Just enjoy it and have fun and just know that the struggle is real and changes shape, but just to keep pushing forward.”

Rather than instant and constant commentary, the JOVM mainstay offers something quieter, more radical, and maybe something more empathetic: The permission to be confused, tired and distracted — and yet still make something beautiful and necessary out of the noise.

Distracted will include the previously released “I Did This To Myself,” feat. Lil Yachty “She Knows Too Much,” feat. Mac Miller, and the album’s latest single, “ThunderWave” feat. WILLOW. “ThunderWave” features Thundercat and WILLOW’s seamless harmonies floating and bobbing over Greg Kurstin’s ambient production, a slick synthesis of Peter Gabriel-like art pop, Jaco Pastorious-era jazz fusion/jazz funk and Quiet Storm soul, which includes the sound of waves lapping gently on the shore. The result is a moonlit-like scene between two seemingly doomed, endlessly yearning lovers.

Thundercat shared some thoughts about creating the track: “Willow, the weeping, the whimsy, the whispy, the wizard. Grateful for the opportunity to create and spend time with such a beautiful human. Our journey together has been quite a fun one. Creating this song together, felt very much like the real us. So happy to be able to share.”

Photography by William Ruben HelmsMar 10, 202616:00

Photography: County Cork Pipes & Drums at McGuinness’s Saloon 3/1/26

Photography by William Ruben HelmsMar 10, 202612:00

Photography: St. Pat’s For All Parade 3/1/26

Video by William Ruben HelmsMar 10, 202609:00

New Video: Kim Gordon Shares Jazzy “PLAY ME”

The legendary Kim Gordon will be releasing her third solo album, the Justin Raisen-produced PLAY ME on Friday through Matador Records. PLAY ME is reportedly distilled and immediate, and sees Gordon expanding on her sonic palette to include more melodic beats and the motorik drive of krautock.

“We wanted the songs to be short,” Gordon says of her continued collaboration with acclaimed, Los Angeles-based producer Justin Raisen. “We wanted to do it really fast. It’s more focused, and maybe more confident. I always kind of work off of rhythms, and I knew I wanted it to be even more beat-oriented than the last one. Justin really gets my voice and my lyrics and he understands how I work—that came forth even more on this record.”

PLAY ME is the follow-up to 2024’s critically applauded sophomore album The Collective, which featured the two-time Grammy-nominated single “BYE BYE.” PLAY ME sees Gordon processing in her imitable way, the collateral damage of the billionaire class: the demolition of democracy, technocratic end-times-like fascism, the A.I.-fueled chill vibes flattering of culture — where dark humor voices the absurdity of our moment. But despite its frequent outward gave, the album is essentially an interior effort, one in which heightened emotionality pulses through physical jams, while rejecting definitive statements in favor of an inquisitiveness and curiosity that keeps Gordon searching — and ever in process.

Amid PLAY ME’s rabbit-hole reality bricolage, pitch-shifted vocals and shadowy layers of dissonance, the album’s material are clear-eyed about the attention they pay to a world that would rather you be distracted and rage-baited into oblivion. “I have to say, the thing that influenced me most was the news. We are in some kind of ‘post empire’ now, where people just disappear,” Gordon says, echoing the title of one of PLAY ME’s tracks.

PLAY ME will feature the previously released “NOT TODAY,” and “DIRTY TECH,” as well as the album’s third single, album title track “PLAY ME.” “PLAY ME” may arguably be the most hip-hop influenced track of the entire album with the song anchored around a swaggering DJ Premier-like production tweeter and woofer rattling beats paired with a meditative, modal jazz trumpet line. Gordon’s imitable croon takes on a subtle staccato, hipKhop like flow to match.

Directed by Barney Clay, the accompanying video for “PLAY ME” is grainy, security camera-like footage that follows a stylish Gordon in a mall. It’s a forceful and uneasy bit of commentary on our Big Brother-esque surveillance world.