The bassist's fifth studio album features the late Mac Miller, along with Lil Yachty, WILLOW, A$AP Rocky, Tame Impala and Channel Tres, arriving 3 April via Brainfeeder.
Six years is a long time between drinks, but Thundercat’s making it count with Distracted. His fifth studio album is dropping April 3 via Brainfeeder, featuring collaborations from Tame Impala to the late Mac Miller.
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Leading the release is the single ‘I Did This To Myself (feat. Lil Yachty)’, a meditation on modern dating. Both artists find themselves hung up on someone too busy, with crystals, Instagram posts, and a “big ‘ole ass” taking priority over their advances. It’s self-aware, slightly absurd, and quintessentially Thundercat, with additional production from longtime collaborator Flying Lotus.
A$AP Rocky appears on the grandiose ‘Funny Friends’ (and recently invited Thunder to his Saturday Night Live performance). WILLOW floats through ‘ThunderWave’, whilst Channel Tres brings upbeat bass energy to ‘This Thing We Call Love’. Tame Impala joins for ‘No More Lies’, and perhaps most poignantly, there’s a previously unreleased collaboration with Mac Miller on ‘She Knows Too Much’.
Distracted marks a creative evolution for Thundercat, primarily working with superproducer Greg Kurstin, the hitmaker behind records for Adele, Paul McCartney, Beyoncé and Beck. Flying Lotus, Kenneth Blume (formerly Kenny Beats), and The Lemon Twigs round out the production roster.
Thematically, the album sits between Drunk‘s frenzied energy and It Is What It Is‘s melancholy, exploring how distraction can be both a hindrance and, somehow, healing in our overstimulated world. Thundercat’s deeply sceptical of technological “progress”—namely, the disappointment of drones without lasers, phones that just upgrade cameras, innovation reduced to surveillance. Yet he finds solace in the strange ways distraction can refocus us. “Sometimes you need to be distracted to focus in a different way,” he explains.
Since his 2020 Grammy-winning It Is What It Is, Thundercat’s presence has only expanded. Collaborations with Gorillaz, Silk Sonic, Kaytranada and Justice kept his bass work in rotation, while his acting roles in Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett and Yo Gabba Gabbaland proved his versatility extends beyond music.
With artwork by Grammy-nominated photographer Neil Krug (Lana Del Rey, Djo), Distracted arrives as a fully realised statement, giving you permission to be distracted, and still make something beautiful.
Pre-save Distracted here.
