Thundercat - 'Bus In These Streets'

Music 4 years ago

Thundercat - 'Bus In These Streets'

Thundercat’s third solo album is an inward-looking suite of songs informed largely by the virtuosic bassist’s own eccentric sensibilities.

The result includes goofy-ass lyrics, depressing balladry, and guest spots by artists as disparate as Kendrick Lamar and Kenny Loggins.

Undulating basslines and ultra-crisp drum loops serve as fitting foundations for his anxious ponderings on ideas both big and small.

In “Friend Zone,” Thundercat muses over a funk groove about whether a woman spurned him because of his adoration of video games; “Walk on By” grapples with death; and the penultimate track, the Pharrell collaboration

“The Turn Down,” takes on the impending doom of man-made climate change. Spread out across 23 tracks, Drunk kicks off in high gear, frenetic and playful, before eventually coming to resemble the bleariness of its creator’s late-night state.