| Red vinyl. Thundercat releases his new album, Distracted, on Brainfeeder Records. Featuring contributions from A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, and Tame Impala as well as production work by Greg Kurstin, Flying Lotus & Kenneth Blume, Distracted is the long awaited triumphant return from one of Los Angeles' most singular musical minds. Four albums, multiple Grammys and a universe of obsessions later, Distracted rolls in stacked floor-to-celing with collaborators and is anchored by a now-beloved voice that's grown into something richer and brilliantly alive at the core. With the world now mostly fluent in Thundercat, the new record descends like a fever dream shared between old friends with this luminous roll call orbiting a singer whose falsetto has deepened into something wiser, funnier, and achingly human. The higher Thundercat ascends, the more everything multiplies. The songs get bigger, the stages get wider and the weight on the shoulders follows suit. To be more present in the world of 2026 is to be more exposed to its static, spiraling anxieties, and yes, its endless distractions. But he carries it all and offers it up with the ease and generosity of someone who has made vulnerability into an art form. Beneath his nimble hands and welcoming melodies his voice floats above like smoke, walking the line between heartbreak and a punchline. Humor, a trademark quality across Thundercat's oeuvre, is crucial to focus track, "Funny Friends (feat. A$AP Rocky)." Less comical and more wry, "Funny Friends" is littered with clever wordplay, delivered in warm harmonies over a steady groove. The effect elicits a psychedelic atmosphere, one where things are both wondrous and confusing, as friendships often are. |
