Distracted (CD)

Six years to the date of his last LP, Thundercat will release his fifth studio album, Distracted, coming out April 3rd via Brainfeeder. The new album features contributions from A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Tame Impala, Channel Tres, Lil Yachty and a previously unreleased collaboration with the dearly departed Mac Miller. Distracted was primarily created in close collaboration with a new creative partner for Thundercat - the superproducer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with some of the biggest names in pop like Adele, Paul McCartney, Sia, Beyoncé, Beck and more - with additional production turns on the record from Flying Lotus, Kenny Beats (Kenneth Blume), and The Lemon Twigs.

Distracted vividly captures the tension between overstimulation and introspection. Thundercat is deeply skeptical of technological “progress,” especially the way it’s narrowed our collective imagination instead of expanding it. He jokes about Star Trek and childhood dreams of space travel, then pivots to the anticlimax of reality: drones without lasers, phones that only upgrade cameras, innovation reduced to spying and access. The disappointment isn’t just about gadgets; it’s about what we were promised versus what we got.

The drawbacks of distraction are evident in today’s attention (deficit) economy, but a true idiosyncratic like Thundercat can identify the ways in which it can be used to one’s advantage. You can’t spell ‘daydreams’ without ‘dreams,’ after all.

“Sometimes you need to be distracted to focus in a different way,” Thundercat declares.

Tracklist:

1. Candlelight
2. No More Lies (feat. Tame Impala)
3. She Knows Too Much (feat. Mac Miller)
4. I Did This To Myself (feat. Lil Yachty)
5. Funny Friends (feat. A$AP Rocky)
6. What Is Left To Say
7. I Wish I Didn’t Waste Your Time
8. Anakin Learns His Fate
9. Walking on the Moon
10. This Thing We Call Love (feat. Channel Tres)
11. ThunderWave (feat. WILLOW)
12. Pozole
13. A.D.D. Through the Roof
14. Great Americans
15. You Left Without Saying Goodbye