Jordan Rakei Announces New LP ‘What We Call Life’; Shares Lead Single “Family”
Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, producer, and songwriter Jordan Rakei will be releasing his fourth studio album What We Call Life via Ninja Tune on September 17th. Serving as his most vulnerable and intimate album to date, the London-based artist went through a period of self-discovery following therapy sessions and “positive psychology”. The themes of his new album reflect his paradigm shift, including the lead single “Family” and its message of loving his family through hardships.
“I wanted to hit my vulnerability barrier and be really honest. It’s about my parents’ divorce in my mid-teens but still having love for them no matter what,” he explains. His emotionally-driven lyricism is matched by the soothing R&B and indietronica influences drifting into his sound. His crisp vocals and subtly driving bass line contrast together for a dense and captivating spectrum.
On his forthcoming album What We Call Life Rakei dives deeper into his sound world, merging electronic with acoustic, and rugged grooves with ambient atmospheres, to create something richer, more detailed, and more textural than before. Rakei, already a practitioner of meditation and mindfulness, was curious about the potential of using therapy for further self-discovery. During the process, he began to learn more about his behaviour patterns and anxieties, and addressed his long-standing irrational phobia of birds – a fear often associated with the unpredictable and the unknown, and something explored in the album’s creative direction and visuals. “As we worked through it, it made me realise I would love to talk about the different lessons I learned from therapy in my music: about my early childhood, my relationship with my parents and siblings, becoming independent in London, being in a new marriage, understanding how my marriage compares to the relationship my parents had”, Rakei says.
Listen to “Family” below and stay tuned for more snippets from the album.
