robby #21

I don’t quite feel like an “essential worker” right now. I have never fucked around at work as much as I have so far today. On a normal workday, I get in about 70 to 80 streams. I still have two hours left in my shift & I’m sitting at 115 listens as I’m writing this.

I made a promise last night to myself that I’d listen to Thundercat’s It Is What It Is before anything else today. It’s never shocking to me how easy it is to break promises. After listening to Toosie Slide for an hour and realizing I’m going to be sitting at my desk doing absolutely nothing, I finally get around to the record I’ve been unintentionally dodging(it’s a privilege to have this problem, I’d rather have a long list of songs that I can’t help but replay than to ever NOT KNOW what to listen to).

Drunk is an incredible album that mostly functions as a soundtrack for any occasion. My relationship with Thundercat’s third album was predicated on how it felt like it held the power to transport me into a movie script for a comedy adventure. I feel some of the magic on It Is What It Is, but it doesn’t take me long to realize I’m listening to a different type of beast.

There are lonely jams for forgetting about the people around you and there’s bass slaps for your car speakers, but also sprinkled in this album are tracks that genuinely make me feel sadly controlled. Unlike it’s predecessor, It Is What It Is doesn’t help me navigate my daily stories, but instead places me in it’s own drama.

There were times during my three runs with the album where I felt disconnected with a song, as if I knew what was happening on the other side of the door but I’m just not in there to see it. However, this disconnection was temporary and my emotions of a track would be changed on another try.

It’s been a couple days since I wrote what’s above. Driving with It Is What It Is seeping through my open windows, I can attest to skipping through half the album to play certain tracks. Fair Chance and the title track are insane.

I’m not sure if I know if Ty Dolla $ign is one of the best singers currently dropping music, but what I do know is when I sing his lyrics, he makes me believe what I’m following along with. That’s not me saying that I believe what he is saying, I’m saying that when I keep replaying the 60 seconds he appears on the album’s third single, it’s so easy for me to imagine myself right there with him and cry these lyrics along with him.