Humanity Hallows Issue 5 Out Now
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By Lewis Catlow
On his third full-length record, Stephen Bruner, the Grammy-winning bassist extraordinaire known as Thundercat, has a collection of cosmic, outlandish and offbeat songs full of his trademark oddities and non-linear humour.
Drunk isn’t a world away from his previous two releases: 2013’s Apocalypse and 2015’s The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam, and even frequent collaborator Flying Lotus’ 2014 record You’re Dead!, in which he contributed bass and vocals to numerous tracks. Drunk explores Thundercat’s usual themes of heartbreak, morbidity and the afterlife, his pondering boredom and uncertainty, but with his signature not-too-serious cynical humour.
Over the album’s 23 tracks, the artist’s collaborations prove his fluidity with genre as he covers everything from 70s soul and electro-funk, to his usual jazz/R&B fusion to yacht-rock. A typical all-star cast features with the likes of Pharrell (The Turn Down), Kendrick Lamar (Walk on By), Wiz Khalifa (Drink Dat) and two of his long-time heroes in Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald (Show You The Way).
The album enjoys concentrating on late-night tales, and although, at times, it appears dark and serious, there’s always comedy creeping close by. ‘Captain Stupido’ sees Thundercat wide-eyed after an apparent heavy night: “I feel weird / Comb your beard, brush your teeth / Beat your meat, go to sleep.” He also touches on themes of technological paranoia and social media dependence in the trippy, loose fuzz-bass highlight ‘Bus in These Streets’: “From the minute I wake up I’m staring at the screen / Watching the world go insane…Thank God for technology ’cause where would we be if we couldn’t tweet our thoughts?”
There’s a severe sense here of Thundercat’s world being filled with worries and anxiety. The FlyLo produced ‘Lava Lamp’ sees him contemplating death and the uncertainty of the afterlife, where he hopes to be united with a lost loved-one again: “Maybe another time and space / When I can look you in the face / Maybe in another life.” The theme is continued in ‘Jethro’, which tackles the subject in a more abstract manner. However, these songs aren’t matched in their subject matter with the music, which is often cheap and cheesy sounding, eclectic and content, all at the same time.
Although Thundercat’s soothing, soft falsetto is one of his beautiful trademark sounds, on Drunk, with its almost two-dozen songs, it can seem repetitive towards the end. The limited delivery can sway concentration away from his lush bass melodies and unusual time signatures. Not to mention the somewhat disappointing songs that should’ve been made lengthier, as many songs fall below the two-minute mark, with some even below one. But that’s just Thundercat, challenging expectations and norms to create his own diverse, intricate style. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, however deep the subject matter gets on his record. And he doesn’t want you to take him, or yourself, too seriously either. But to just join him in enjoying Drunk.
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