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Aug 12, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Bao Ngo Bartees Strange

Washington, D.C.-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Bartees Strange (real name Bartees Cox Jr.) has officially announced his debut album, Live Forever, and shared a new song from it, “Boomer,” via a video for it. Live Forever is due out October 2 via Memory Music. In July Strange announced that the album was coming this fall, but shared no other details beyond releasing its first single, “Mustang” (which was one of our Songs of the Week). Check out the “Boomer” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

Live Forever was recorded in a barn studio in Wassaic, NY. It was later mastered by Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip. A press release digs into the album’s genre-blurring sound: “It spans gentle, Moses Sumney-meets-Yves Jarvis minimalism, Kings of Leon-ish indie rock vigor with post-punk cracks in its danceable veneer, the throbbing industrial alt-soul of Algiers, Justin Vernon’s acoustic tenderness, and the volatile, unforgiving production and delivery of Death Grips.”

Strange first garnered attention for covering a string of The National tracks, including on Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy, his EP of National covers released earlier this year on Brassland, a label run by members of the band. He was born in Ipswich, England, but grew up in Mustang, a largely the white and conservative rural town outside Oklahoma City. “Boomer” is partly about getting stoned with his dad for the first time and how his dad is proud of the growth Strange has experienced since leaving Mustang. “Things are changing,” Strange says in a press release. “I can change too, and this is who I want to be.”

Live Forever finds Strange taking full creative control. “I’m often the only Black guy in the room when I’m playing in a band or working in a studio and I’ll be honest, I don’t think the engineer always knew what I wanted to capture, what I was trying to do or what I was referencing,” Strange says. “I wanted a space where I could be in control of how it was gonna sound, and have people there to check me that I trust.”

Live Forever Tracklist:

1. Jealousy
2. Mustang
3. Boomer
4. Kelly Rowland
5. In A Cab
6. Stone Meadows
7. Mossblerd
8. Flagey God
9. Far
10. Fallen For You
11. Ghostly

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