FEATURE:
Revisiting...
Thundercat - It Is What It Is
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I am looking back…
at some great albums from the past year or two in this feature. I am continuing with Thundercat’s fourth studio album, It Is What It Is. It is an excellent record that, whist celebrated, is not played all that much now. In terms of the songs one sees shared or played on the radio, it is a little limited. The album won Best Progressive R&B Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. It won a raft of positive reviews. With Thundercat (Stephen Lee Bruner) co-writing the tracks and bringing some great collaborators into the fold (including Steve Lacy and Childish Gambino), there is such a lot to appreciate with It Is What It Is. Black Qualls and Dragonball Durga were among my favourite singles from last year. It Is What It Is was released on 3rd April, 2020. It was very early in the pandemic, so it provided many of us with some much-needed musical nourishment and brilliance. In addition to putting some songs from the album into this feature, it is also worth quoting a couple of positive reviews. I wonder why more of It Is What It Is is not played on the radio. Thundercat is a terrific artists whose music is always fascinating and memorable. In their review, The Times observed the following about one of 2020’s finest albums:
“Hi, hello, is anybody there? Let me know if you can hear me,” asks Thundercat, aka 35-year-old jazz bassist turned pop eccentric Stephen Bruner, with the opening words of his fourth album. It proves a pertinent question. Bruner could not have known It Is What It Is would come out when much of the world is in lockdown, but its dreamlike mood, boredom-induced throwaway humour and general feeling of being the work of a man who spends too much time on his own is eerily appropriate.
Bruner is an unlikely success. A Los Angeles virtuoso with a signature six-stringed Ibanez bass guitar, he spent years as a session player for hip-hop and soul names including Kendrick Lamar and Erykah Badu while specialising in the kind of smooth, jolly, fiddly jazz funk last heard from 1970s bands such as Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra. He makes music for people who get excited about complex time signatures, rather than the average integrated member of society. Then, in 2017, Bruner let his unusual character shine through on Drunk, an album about the hedonistic, alienating life of a touring musician, and suddenly the world of noodling jazz funk had something it generally wasn’t used to: a breakout star.
Now Bruner is in a position to get big names such as the actor/rapper Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) and the saxophonist Kamasi Washington to guest on his new album, and it continues where Drunk left off, with songs that reflect on aspects of black American life with a kind of gallows humour.
On Overseas Bruner attempts to seduce a woman during a transatlantic flight before a message from the captain — actually the comedian Zack Fox — interrupts the in-flight entertainment to warn the passengers: “There appears to be a shiny black man up there in first class. He’s got all his chains on and a durag . . . Is that Thundercat?” The premise sets up the next track, Dragonball Durag, on which Bruner promises to keep his manga-themed headscarf on as he makes love to a woman. It is like the musical equivalent of a Richard Pryor sketch.
Amid all this, and over 15 tracks that sometimes last for only a minute or so, Bruner displays his virtuosity in full, with ultra-fast bass runs and — naturally — complex time signatures. But there’s also tuneful prettiness, like the soulful Glover collaboration Black Qualls, and plenty of relatable emotion shining through, such as when Bruner grapples with feelings of despair on Existential Dread”.
I am always eager to celebre albums that have so many strong tracks on them. That is definitely the case with Thundercat’s It Is What It Is. If you have not heard the album, then you can pick up a copy or stream it. It is well worth spending some time with an exceptional album like this. I will round off by sourcing some of NME’s assessment of It Is What It Is:
“It Is What It Is’, however, arrives at the tail-end of a challenging period in Thundercat’s life. His label boss and co-producer Flying Lotus recently disclosed to Billboard that in making this “sombre record” his collaborator “took the darker path”, referring to the tragic death of Thundercat’s close friend Mac Miller in 2018. “I think the existential dread set in when Mac disappeared,” he told The New York Times recently. “I was faced with a choice — to either follow suit or figure it out. And I guess this is me trying to figure it out.”
The album’s stoic title aside, Thundercat’s lyrical reflections on grief, uncertainty and gradual healing are threaded through ‘It Is What It Is’. He movingly calls out “Hey, Mac!” at the title track’s ethereal outro, and on album opener ‘Lost In Space / Great Scott / 22-26’ he apprehensively exhales into the great void: “It feels so cold and so alone”.
‘Fair Chance’, which explicitly pays tribute to Miller, features Ty Dolla $ign lifting lyrics from the late rapper’s ‘Hurt Feelings’ (“Keep my head above water / My eyes gettin’ bigger / The world gettin’ smaller”) and Thundercat eulogising “bye-bye for now, I’ll keep holding it down for you” in his distinctive falsetto. There won’t be a dry eye in the house.
‘It Is What It Is’ isn’t entirely shrouded in mourning at every turn though: there’s ample fun and musical exuberance here. A Kamasi Washington sax solo squalls through the thunderous jazz fusion of ‘Innerstellar Love’ before the barmy yet brilliant ‘Dragonball Durag’ sees our narrator declare “I may be covered in cat hair, but I still smell good” to a presumably bemused love interest.
Flying Lotus’ frantic production style, meanwhile, takes hold on the brief ‘How Sway’ as Thundercat shows off his dexterous bass skills. That interlude, one of five on the record, is either impressive or mind-numbing, depending on your feelings about its attempt to ape vintage video game soundtracks.
‘It Is What It Is’’s magic moment comes as Thundercat links up with Steve Lacy, Childish Gambino and ‘80s funk hero Steve Arrington on ‘Black Qualls’; the disco-funk tune should be up for consideration as the best song of 2020. Its inclusion here gives a comforting indication that, for all of the album’s heavy rumination on life, death and healing, Thundercat can still kick back when required”.
A nod and celebration of a great album from last year. I felt it was worth revisiting it. For anyone who has not heard the album or is a bit fresh to Thundercat, I can definitely recommend It Is What It Is and his work in general. He is a fantastic artist who produces rich compositions, thought-provoking lyrics and some sensational moments. It Is What It Is overflows with…
SIMPLY brilliant music.