It may be a small consolation. Himself Thundercat I’m having a hard time concentrating these days. His fifth studio album, aptly titled Distracted and his first since 2020’s It Is What It Is, draws inspiration from the never-ending information bombardment we now call modern life. Although he is careful not to sink into despair or, worse, pessimism. Instead, distractions become a source of inspiration, an almost necessary balm to maneuver through each day. “A child who is afraid of needles goes to the doctor and the doctor waves something in front of his face and then gives him the injection. Sometimes distraction can be good,” he says.
On a recent visit to ROLLING STONE’s New York office, he wears an eclectic smorgasbord of jewelry. From medieval-looking rings to a breastplate straight out of “Game of Thrones.” “Sometimes you need armor,” he jokes. Protection is another theme on Distracted, an album that is as concerned with the modern condition as it is with loss and grief – themes that have long resonated in the background of Thundercat’s music. His last project, which won him a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album, focused heavily on the death of his friend Mac Miller, whose verse appears early on “Distracted.”
The new album was created while Thundercat – real name Stephen Bruner, grew up in Los Angeles – was dealing with the loss of another creative companion and friend: the music manager and concert producer Meghan Stabile, to whom he directly memorializes on “Candlelight”. “She was a candle,” he says. “And life has a funny way of making things complicated – she was something of a light for me and my family.”
It’s a moving tribute: His feather-light voice glides effortlessly over the complex instrumentation of producer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin, virtuoso jazz pianist DOMi Louna and extraordinary drummer JD Beck, who together form the Grammy-nominated jazz duo DOMi & JD Beck. “It’s a collaboration between me, Greg Kurstin, JD and Domi,” explains Thundercat. “When you have musicality, it’s a language of its own. It was really beautiful developing this song.” Thundercat is now aware of the sadness that hangs over so many of his releases – but he interprets this not as gloom, but as a kind of Zen acceptance. For him, grief is less something you go through than a basic condition of life. “It’s like this: you never stop learning, you get better at things over time,” he says. “But yeah, there was a lot to process between the last album and this one.”
Kaleidoscopic sound world
Sonically, “Distracted” follows on seamlessly from “It Is What It Is” – a kaleidoscopic, free-flowing, jazz-soaked journey through a wide range of musical instincts. The album’s sense of adventure reflects the themes around which it revolves, while Thundercat describes his own brand of creative restlessness. “The way I learned to cope with myself was by having several things happening at once,” he says. “Even practicing on my instrument had to be unconscious to some extent. So I don’t know – somewhere in between, distraction is sometimes the worst thing or the best thing that can happen.”
A classic songwriting craft runs through the album. Tracks like “What Is Left to Say” have the vintage melody of a Brat Pack-era love song – as if Sinatra were crooning about Situationships, which in his own way perhaps he actually did. “Distracted” succeeds in an exciting fusion of time: The songs have a familiar lineage in pop music history – funk-influenced bass lines swing into R&B rhythms and power ballad synths.
There is also a hand-picked range of features in Thundercat’s world. Lil Yachty is featured on “I Did This To Myself” and follows up his indie foray on “Let’s Start Here.” Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, who helped shape Yachty’s psychedelic rock moment, appears on “No More Lies” – a song that Thundercat says is the result of years of mutual admiration.
“We met at the Grammys years before, but if you look at the photo of us, we look stupid. He has his glasses on. I have my glasses on. [Flying] Lotus has his glasses on. We’re all like, ‘Oh God.’ It was like we were pulled out of a cave,” he remembers. “I love everything they do. Always have. I think in a way he was perhaps surprised at how well it worked. But I always say: Nothing replaces the common language. And if you have even a little bit of it, it just works.”
Mac Miller’s posthumous verse
A previously unreleased verse from Mac Miller appears on “She Knows Too Much,” an upbeat, breezy track that deftly walks the line between vulnerability and toxic male-feared posturing. “We never knew where it would go,” Thundercat says of the posthumous post. “He had places he wanted to touch, and he was prepared for it. And with this song, for us, it was like canon. It was like, ‘We’ll go there again.'”
The song takes up the album’s perspective on modern relationship life, which many see as pure hell. A particular fear is rampant among young men. Some call it the “Male Loneliness Epidemic.” The idea that men find it more difficult than previous generations to find a partner. Thundercat faces this misery with his characteristic humor. “I feel like at every point everyone just wants every guy to run into the ocean, yell some loud war cry, and then fire lasers into the sky,” he says, perhaps half-jokingly. “And then kill yourself, jump off a cliff. That’s how everything feels right now.”
Technology hangs over the album like a permanent cloud. Like a constant source of titular distraction and a kind of existential threat to real connection. “The internet creates the illusion of possibility. There are apps, and then you find your boyfriend or girlfriend through the app – it’s hard to wade through. It’s complicated, but that’s our problem to deal with.”
An album for our times
Thundercat’s last album came out just as a global pandemic was turning society upside down – and his new one “follows on the heels of the madness,” as he says. Accordingly, “Distracted” feels like a contemporary document, in a world that is as burnt out as it is online, endlessly scrolling but rarely really present. “The most important message of the album? Sometimes it’s okay to be distracted. But in most situations it’s not okay,” says Thundercat. “I think we can all be honest: we’re all kind of distracted right now, and we’re trying not to be – but sometimes you need that little break.”
