It Is What It Is
A brilliant, bittersweet blend of hyper-virtuosity and deep grief. Liquid basslines and airy falsetto mask a profound meditation on loss and mortality.
April 3, 2020 · Brainfeeder
A brilliant, bittersweet blend of hyper-virtuosity and deep grief. Liquid basslines and airy falsetto mask a profound meditation on loss and mortality.
April 3, 2020 · Brainfeeder
A rubbery, hyper-speed bassline bounces beneath a falsetto so light it feels like warm breath on a cold window. You are listening to someone laugh through tears, wrapping heavy grief in bright, neon-colored funk. The drums snap with playful precision, but a quiet, bruised ache hangs in the spaces between the chords. It feels like driving through a city at midnight, windows down, trying to outrun a memory that is sitting right in the passenger seat.
“As on the earlier Thundercat LPs, outer space and homeboy escapades, comic courtship and elusive companionship, and philosophical insights also inform the material”Read review
“What’s impressive is how Thundercat makes this music, with its complex structures and zigzagging rhythms, so human”Read review
“Sparkles with inventive songwriting, chunky production and pervasive good vibes, a worthwhile addition to any R&B or jazz fan’s collection”Read review
“It’s an album embracing difference, accepting highs and lows: just what we need right now”Read review
“The jazz-fusion bassline don reins in the funk to honour his fallen friend, though also lets loose with the likes of Childish Gambino by his side”Read review
“Guests including Childish Gambino and Flying Lotus help the adventurous bass player/singer/songwriter/producer create a powerful LP”Read review
“Although even at its worst, Bruner’s songs remain enjoyable through his sharp, and often dazzling, bass playing. Emotionally and musically, he has kept pushing forward on this new record”Read review
“An expansive record for intensive times”Read review
“Three years after his 2017 opus *Drunk,* Bruner returns with more fleet-fingered jams and abstracted musings, this time a little more unpolished”Read review
“It Is What It Is manifests as a beautiful ebb and flow of emotional states, philosophical musings and plain old comedy”Read review
“Mood and mode fluctuate wildly on an album that finds the jazz virtuoso meditating on the death of a close friend”Read review
“On It Is What It Is, Stephen Bruner’s eccentric hyperactivity is on full display, bouncing from jittery bass chops to fat West Coast funk”Read review
How does It Is What It Is sound next to the rest of Thundercat's catalogue?
The record leans heavily into an unprecedented level of grief, turning his usual eccentric musings into a tender, heartbreaking confrontation with the sudden loss of a close friend.
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