5 January, 2023Print
Oddisee’s New Single “Try Again” Is An Anthem To Perseverance
To What End - Oddisee’s 1st LP Since 2017 - Out January 20Rapper/producer Oddisee has released “Try Again,” a fresh preview of his forthcoming full-length album To What End, out January 20th on his own Outernote Label. Long celebrated as a deep-thinking emcee, “Try Again” delivers encouraging bars over licks of electric guitar, pushing both himself and the listener to use their hardships as fuel for perseverance. “All this time you spent, all that love you gave / please don’t walk away, try again.”
Listen to “Try Again” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bh3Wdlh95g
Says Oddisee: “In my 20 years of making music, it hasn’t always been easy. For me, happiness is the reward for working hard at doing what I love,” Oddisee says of his inspiration behind the track. “Finding happiness in my failures & mistakes by using them as an opportunity to learn has been my biggest incentive to keep trying.”
Oddisee previously shared two songs from To What End when he announced it in early November: “Ghetto to Meadow” (feat. Freeway) and “Hard To Tell”, which were subsequently covered by Pitchfork, Okayplayer, Consequence, andStereogum. He also spent November and December crossing North America with his band, performing nearly 30 shows and headlining venues including Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
On To What End, Oddisee further explores human ambition, posing the question: “how far are you willing to go, and why?” Between analyses of human psyche (“People Watching”, “More To Go”) and a look at the desperate measures people are willing to take to escape poverty (“Ghetto To Meadow”), Oddisee steps forward with a vulnerable examination of himself.
The mounting pressure on Oddisee to complete this album, while navigating the challenges of touring and raising a family amongst other things, pushed him to do “the uncomfortable things,” he says, like seeing a therapist for the first time and addressing his own mental health issues. The track “Many Hats” was directly inspired by his therapy experiences, and the realization that it’s ok to ask for, and get help.
Another “uncomfortable thing” that Oddisee confronted on this album was collaboration. Adhering to DIY principals throughout his career, which includes producing, mixing and engineering all of his albums, doing it all himself has always been his mentality. To What End welcomes the most guests and collaborators to the fold than ever before, including Bilal, Phonte, C.S. Armstrong, Noochie, Haile Supreme and Freeway.
Oddisee’s work has been celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, Complex, Hypebeast, KCRW, and many, many more. Pitchfork deemed 2017’s trenchant The Iceberg “a focused beam of live-band and hip-hop soul that rattles loudly in our present political moment,” while Stereogum described 2020’s Odd Cure as “gorgeous” and with NPR booking Oddisee for a second NPR Tiny Desk appearance.
Pre-save To What End here: https://orcd.co/oddisee-to-what-end
To What End - TRACK LIST
01. The Start of Something
02. How Far
03. Many Hats
04. Already Knew
05. Choices Feat. Phonte, Bemy Fiasco & Kay Young
06. Try Again
07. Ghetto To Meadow Feat. Freeway
08. More To Go Feat. C.S. Armstrong
09. All I Need Feat. Olivier St. Louis
10. Bartenders Feat. Toine Jameson
11. Work To Do Feat. Bilal
12. People Watching
13. Hard To Tell
14. Bogarde Feat. Noochie
15. The Way Feat. Haile Supreme and Saint Ezekiel
16. Race