Weekly Music Roundup: U2, Genesis Owusu, and Justin Hicks

This week, protest songs from U2 and Genesis Owusu; singles from Snail Mail and Justin Hicks; and a posthumous Mac Miller collaboration with Thundercat.

U2 Makes A Surprise Return With Days Of Ash

U2 released a six song EP called Days of Ash on Wednesday. The band is planning a full length (their first since 2017) later this year, but given the topicality of some of these songs, they clearly felt a need to get them out now. Much attention will focus on “American Obituary,” a cry of anger and pain at the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE agents, and more generally, at the death of an idea of America that has often inspired U2’s best work. This, though, is not their best work – some poetry is sacrificed in the blunt lyrics and some of the rhymes seem to be there just because they rhyme. But the EP’s concluding track, “Yours Eternally,” does harken back to the band’s sonic heyday.  Inspired by the war in Ukraine, it features both Ed Sheeran and the Ukrainian singer Taras Topolia joining Bono as the track reaches the sort of arena-sized climax this band seems to do so effortlessly. “Dearest friends or whatever/We are calling ourselves these days/My current location/I cannot disclose,” Bono sings early in the song – lyrics that allude to darkness without spelling everything out. The chorus, ending with the line “Don't bet/on getting rid of me/yours eternally,” offers a needed dose of hope amidst the ash and grief of these songs. And the final word, tellingly, is a repeated “volia,” a Ukrainian word that means both freedom and personal liberty.  

Snail Mail Takes To The Sky In New Single

Singer and guitarist Lindsey Jordan records under the name Snail Mail, and this week she released a new single from her forthcoming album Ricochet. “My Maker” is a steadily building song about fate and heaven and sky – so of course the video is a one-shot performance in a hot-air balloon. Jordan’s vocals move from the pensive to the anthemic atop an ascendant mix of crunchy shoegaze guitars and swirling synthesizers.

Richocet comes out on March 27. 

Justin Hicks Releases An Accomplished Debut

Singer and songwriter Justin Hicks has been part of Meshell Ndegeocello’s band – the Grammy-winning bassist does sing on her own albums, but often the voice you hear on her recent albums has been Hicks. Like Ndegeocello, Hicks is conversant with many forms of music, and on his debut solo LP, Man Of Style, he offers songs that draw on R&B, soul, rock (both indie and more industrial sounding), jazz, and folk. There’s even a song called “Poly” whose title seems to be a statement of purpose. Leadoff track “Rest Assured” features Hicks’ vocals, often soaring into his falsetto voice, over a series of chiming guitar figures and mostly earthy-sounding percussion. Despite the many stylistic twists, Hicks’ album feels like a coherent reflection of a vocalist with a versatile instrument and an omnivorous sonic appetite.

Justin Hicks appears on the Feb. 26th edition of Soundcheck, performing live and discussing his music. It’ll be available wherever you get podcasts, or at newsounds.org.

Genesis Owusu Stirs the Pot With New Single

The Ghanaian-Australian singer and rapper Genesis Owusu dropped a new single yesterday, perhaps heralding a new album (his last one was in 2023). The song, “Stampede,” is a pummeling piece of synth-punk, and a response to a world where individual voices seem to be easily silenced. Combining and uniting voices as an act of rebellion, he suggests, is the best way to effect change. Owusu returned to Ghana to film the don’t-try-this-at-home video, with daredevil motorcyclists surrounding him as he sings “Can’t you see we’re the pot of gold/Shake that ground, where they gonna go?” 

Thundercat’s Posthumous Collaboration With Mac Miller

The bassist and composer Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) has been part of that wild LA “jazz” scene that also produced Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, and Terrace Martin – all of whom came to global attention for their work on Kendrick Lamar’s instant classic hip hop album To Pimp A Butterfly. Thundercat has won a Grammy for his album It Is What It Is, in the Progressive R&B category, which seems as good, or useless, a description of his music as any other. On April 3 Thundercat will release his next album, Distracted, and this week he put out the single “She Knows Too Much” – a collaboration with rapper Mac Miller, who died in 2018. The two had worked on each other’s albums before, and I’m not sure why this track sat around for so long, but apparently whatever needed to be worked out with the Miller estate has been taken care of; the song features Miller lusting after a girl who seems at first to be out of his league, but who turns out to be something else altogether. The music is a lavish, technicolor production in Thundercat’s typical mix of relentless funk, soul, and psychedelia.