You're Dead! | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 6, 2014 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 38:03 | |||
Label | Warp | |||
Producer | Flying Lotus | |||
Flying Lotus chronology | ||||
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Singles from You're Dead! | ||||
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You're Dead! is the fifth studio album by American music producer Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison), released on October 6, 2014 by Warp Records. Flying Lotus recorded the album at his home in Los Angeles, using Ableton Live and other instruments and software. Like his previous two albums Cosmogramma and Until the Quiet Comes , You're Dead! features extensive contributions from Thundercat, who plays bass guitar on nearly every track and provides vocals on several. It also features guest performances from Angel Deradoorian, Niki Randa, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Kamasi Washington, Jeff Lynne, Kimbra, and Herbie Hancock, along with Captain Murphy, Flying Lotus' rapper alter ego.
You're Dead was promoted with the single "Never Catch Me", which was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 2016 Grammy Awards. Mainly an instrumental album, You're Dead! is described as electronic, jazz fusion and hip hop. The album received widespread acclaim from critics, and peaked at number one at the US Dance/Electronic Albums and at number 19 at the US Billboard 200.
Ellison and Thundercat developed the concept of the album. [2] He said in an interview with Los Angeles Times : [3]
[I was] driving my car with Thundercat, who plays bass on all the stuff. We were driving around listening to George Duke, and there was a moment when we were tripping on how crazy all that playing was. Well, why don't we make some [shit] like this now, that just kills everybody? When you hear it you're like, 'Oh [shit] you're dead!'"
Originally conceived as a double album, [4] Ellison worked on the album soon after finishing his previous album, with the intent of creating "the fastest, hardest, most intense jazz record". [5] Like his previous album, Until the Quiet Comes , he used both Ableton Live and live instruments to make the album. His music gear included Moog Voyager, Fender Rhodes, and Wurlitzer electric pianos, as well as a Gibson guitar, a Carvin Legacy 3 all-tube 3-channel amp head, a bank of six Moogerfooger analog effects modules and two Technics SL-1200 turntables. [6] Daddy Kev, who mastered the album, said that You're Dead! had the largest dynamic range of any of Ellison's work. [6]
You're Dead! is an electronic, [7] jazz, [7] [8] [9] jazz fusion [8] and hip hop [9] album. It is also a concept album [8] about death [10] and afterlife. [11] In an interview with Electronic Musician , Ellison said, "It's like, 'Hey, you're dead, who knows what's next, but our spirits live forever, and you lived through the good and bad sh*t,' not, 'Hey, you're dead, it's over.'" [6] The album has complex melodies, syncopated rhythms, and textured productions. [12]
"Theme", initially called "Jodorowsky", was the song that led into the concept of the album. "Cold Dead" started with an iPhone voice memo. [2] "Stirring" is a homage to Ellison's friend Nick Terry, who had then-recently died. [2] "Coronus, the Terminator" was the first song Ellison made in his new home; "Siren Song" was written for Pharrell. [2] "Eyes Above" has a beat that he created with FKA Twigs and Niki Randa. [13] "The Beyond", dedicated to "an unborn child", is inspired by Fantastic Planet . [2] According to Ellison, "Fkn Dead" was the most difficult song on the album to make, but the arrangement for "Turkey Dog Coma" was the most complex. [2] [14] In "The Boys Who Died in Their Sleep", Ellison raps, under his alias Captain Murphy, about "being comfortable in a cloud where nothing ever happens", while naming OxyContin, Vicodin and Xanax. [4]
The cover art for You're Dead! was designed by Japanese manga artist Shintaro Kago on the cover and inner sleeve, with further art being utilised in the accompanying live show. Much of the drawings featured men and women being disfigured and mutilated in unrealistic, hi-tech ways with a significant amount of gore and nudity. [6]
The album's title and release date were announced on July 22, 2014. [15] On October 7, 2015, Flying Lotus released a deluxe version of the album containing the instrumentals and the previously Japanese exclusive bonus track "Protector". [16] [17]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 8.4/10 [18] |
Metacritic | 88/100 [19] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [20] |
The A.V. Club | A− [21] |
The Guardian | [22] |
The Irish Times | [23] |
Mojo | [24] |
NME | 8/10 [9] |
The Observer | [11] |
Pitchfork | 8.3/10 [25] |
Q | [26] |
Rolling Stone | [10] |
You're Dead! was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 88, based on 36 reviews. [19] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. [18]
Andy Kellman of AllMusic stated, "Like his great aunt, and his great uncle John Coltrane, Ellison has created exceptionally progressive, stirring, and eternal art." [20] Clayton Purdom of The A.V. Club stated, "You're Dead! is his most confidently structured work yet." [21] Matthew Bennett of Clash stated, "This, his fifth album, is also an overt ode to limbo, the halfway house of consciousness and true death. And this is where all 19 tracks dwell, in between the failing light of traditional jazz and the bursts of neon emitted from his polyrhythmic, nocturnal electronica." [27] Adam Kivel of Consequence of Sound stated, "The album works best as a single, unified listen." [7] In a glowing review for The Guardian Paul MacInnes said, "There's always been a sense that Ellison was stretching for a new musical vernacular, one that would continue the lineage of free jazz (he is the great-nephew of Alice Coltrane). This album suggests he might have found it." [22] Chris Cottingham of NME stated, "You're Dead! is a madly inventive record, one that takes hip-hop and jazz as starting points, beats them both to death and then brings them back to life in an almost unrecognisable form." [9] Logan Smithson of PopMatters stated, "You're Dead! is arguably his most imposing album thus far." [8]
Nate Patrin of Pitchfork stated, "Flying Lotus has the notion that death should be the only limiting factor, and when he's put out a work that wrings beauty out of that very thing, what's the point of fearing anything?" [25] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone stated, "Ellison makes the boldest, most fully engaged fusion of the hip-hop-laptop era." [10] Franklin Jones of Slant Magazine stated, "While it may not be clear where we're headed throughout the album, Ellison maneuvers through the bedlam with such confidence that it's not just easy to get swept up in his grand vision of the Great Beyond, but to return for repeat visits." [28] Michael Blair of XXL applauded the album overall saying, "The genius of Flying Lotus, which has been invariably present throughout his preceding releases, but most especially on You’re Dead!, is that he has an incredible ability to both illustrate and extract exceptional amounts of emotion, without saying much at all." [29] Staff writer at Exclaim! Stephen Carlickm described the album as, "Excitingly new yet classically evocative, You're Dead! is contemplative but never boring, an example of genre cross-pollination that transcends novelty and, occasionally, time and space as well." [30] Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in his column for Cuepoint , citing "Turkey Dog Coma" and "Ready err Not" as highlights and writing, "The problem isn't that it's less than the sum of its parts—the problem is that there is no sum, only parts". [31]
Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
The A.V. Club | Top 20 Albums of 2014 | 9 | |
Clash | Top 40 Albums of 2014 | 2 | |
Entertainment Weekly | Top 10 Albums of 2014 | 6 | |
Gorilla vs. Bear | Top 35 Albums of 2014 | 12 | |
The Guardian | Top 40 Albums of 2014 | 9 | |
Pitchfork | Top 50 Albums of 2014 | 17 | |
PopMatters | Top 80 Albums of 2014 | 3 | |
Rolling Stone | Top 50 Albums of 2014 | 11 | |
Sputnikmusic | Top 50 Albums of 2014 | 1 |
The album debuted at number 19 on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 17,000 copies in the United States. [41] In its second week, the album dropped to number 67 on the chart, selling 5,000 copies, bringing its total album sales to 22,000 copies. [42]
All tracks produced by Flying Lotus.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Theme" | Steven Ellison | 1:24 |
2. | "Tesla" |
| 1:54 |
3. | "Cold Dead" |
| 1:34 |
4. | "Fkn Dead" |
| 0:40 |
5. | "Never Catch Me" (featuring Kendrick Lamar) |
| 3:54 |
6. | "Dead Man's Tetris" (featuring Captain Murphy and Snoop Dogg) |
| 2:25 |
7. | "Turkey Dog Coma" |
| 3:09 |
8. | "Stirring" |
| 0:30 |
9. | "Coronus, the Terminator" |
| 2:40 |
10. | "Siren Song" (featuring Angel Deradoorian) |
| 2:37 |
11. | "Turtles" |
| 2:06 |
12. | "Ready err Not" | Ellison | 1:45 |
13. | "Eyes Above" | Ellison | 1:12 |
14. | "Moment of Hesitation" |
| 2:18 |
15. | "Descent into Madness" (featuring Thundercat) |
| 1:27 |
16. | "The Boys Who Died in Their Sleep" (featuring Captain Murphy) | Ellison | 1:50 |
17. | "Obligatory Cadence" | Ellison | 2:56 |
18. | "Your Potential // The Beyond" (featuring Niki Randa) |
| 1:45 |
19. | "The Protest" | Ellison | 1:57 |
Total length: | 38:03 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
20. | "Protector" | Ellison | 2:12 |
Total length: | 40:15 |
Notes
Sample credits
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. [43]
Musicians
Production
Design
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Steven D. Bingley-Ellison, known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder.
Austin Topper Peralta was an American jazz pianist and composer from Los Angeles, California. He was the son of film director and Z-Boys skateboarder Stacy Peralta.
1983 is the debut studio album by American electronic music producer Steven Ellison, under his moniker Flying Lotus. It was released by Plug Research on October 3, 2006. The album is named after Ellison's year of birth.
Cosmogramma is the third studio album by American music producer Steven Ellison as Flying Lotus, released by Warp Records on May 3, 2010.
Brainfeeder is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California, founded by Flying Lotus in 2008, focusing on electronic music and instrumental hip hop. It has signed artists such as Ras G, Samiyam, The Gaslamp Killer, Thundercat, The Underachievers, Lapalux, Daedelus, and Mr. Oizo.
Until the Quiet Comes is the fourth studio album by American electronic music producer Flying Lotus, released on September 26, 2012 by Warp Records. Flying Lotus was inspired to create the album by psychedelic music, African percussion, and concepts of the human subconscious and dream world. He recorded for two years at his home in Los Angeles, experimenting with different mixing techniques and dynamics while primarily using an Ableton Live sequencer along with other instruments and software. The producer was accompanied on certain songs by guest vocalists, including Erykah Badu, Thom Yorke, and Laura Darlington. The album also continued his creative partnership with bassist Thundercat, who had appeared on Flying Lotus' 2010 record Cosmogramma.
Stephen Lee Bruner, better known by his stage name Thundercat, is an American musician, singer, record producer, and songwriter from Los Angeles. First coming to prominence as a member of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, he switched his music with funk, soul, progressive R&B, psychedelia and jazz-fusion, has since released four solo studio albums and is noted for his work with producer Flying Lotus and his appearances on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2016, Thundercat won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his work on the track "These Walls" from To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2020, Thundercat released his fourth studio album, It Is What It Is, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album.
Faces is the eleventh mixtape by American rapper Mac Miller. It was independently released for free download on May 11, 2014. The mixtape is the follow-up to Miller's second studio album Watching Movies with the Sound Off (2013), and is considered by many to be his magnum opus for its dark and personal exploration of Miller's struggle with drug addiction and mental illness. On October 15, 2021, Faces was commercially released on streaming platforms and vinyl.
Bush is the thirteenth studio album by American rapper Snoop Dogg. It was released on May 12, 2015, through Doggy Style Records and I Am Other, and distributed by Columbia Records. The album was produced by Pharrell Williams with additional production by Chad Hugo. It features guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Stevie Wonder, Charlie Wilson, Gwen Stefani, T.I. and Rick Ross. Bush was the first album by the rapper after his return to the hip hop moniker Snoop Dogg.
To Pimp a Butterfly is the third studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on March 15, 2015, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album was recorded in studios throughout the United States, with production from Sounwave, Terrace Martin, Taz "Tisa" Arnold, Thundercat, Rahki, LoveDragon, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams, Boi-1da, Knxwledge, and several other high-profile hip-hop producers, as well as executive production from Dr. Dre and Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Guest appearances include Thundercat, George Clinton, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley, and Rapsody.
"Never Catch Me" is a song by American music producer Flying Lotus from his fifth studio album You're Dead! (2014). The song features vocals from hip hop recording artist Kendrick Lamar. "Never Catch Me" received a nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 58th Grammy Awards.
Ideas+drafts+loops is a mixtape by Flying Lotus, released on December 10, 2013 by Brainfeeder. It was released for free via MediaFire and the Brainfeeder website. The mixtape contains guest features by Andreya Triana, Baths, Earl Sweatshirt, Mapei, Niki Randa, Shabazz Palaces, Thundercat, The Underachievers and Viktor Vaughn; and a remix of Kanye West's song "Black Skinhead".
The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam is an EP by American musician Thundercat. It was released on June 22, 2015 via Brainfeeder.
Untitled Unmastered is a compilation album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on March 4, 2016, through Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. It consists of previously unreleased demos that originated during the recording of Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), continuing that work's exploration of politically charged and philosophical themes, as well as its experimentation with free jazz, soul, avant-garde music, and funk styles. The album received widespread acclaim from critics, and it debuted atop the US Billboard 200.
Drunk is the third studio album by American musician Thundercat, released on February 24, 2017, by Brainfeeder. It features guest appearances from Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, and Pharrell. It was released nearly four years after his previous studio album, Apocalypse.
The discography of American musician Thundercat includes four studio albums, an extended play, and twelve singles.
Flamagra is the sixth studio album by American record producer Flying Lotus, released on May 24, 2019 by Warp Records. It is his first album since 2014's You're Dead!. The lead single, the spoken-word "Fire Is Coming" featuring David Lynch, was released along with its video on April 17, 2019. The album also features contributions from Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Little Dragon, Tierra Whack, Denzel Curry, Shabazz Palaces, Thundercat, Toro y Moi and Solange. A deluxe version of the album with the instrumentals was released on May 29, 2020.
U Know What I'm Sayin? is the fifth studio album by American rapper Danny Brown. It was released on October 4, 2019, by Warp Records. The album features guest appearances from Run the Jewels, Obongjayar, JPEGMafia and Blood Orange. Executive produced by Q-Tip, with contributions by Paul White, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Standing on the Corner and JPEGMafia, the album received widespread critical acclaim, appearing on several publications' year-end lists.
It Is What It Is is the fourth studio album by American musician Thundercat, released through Brainfeeder on April 3, 2020. It was preceded by five singles: "King of the Hill," which was released as a single from the label's compilation album Brainfeeder X in 2018, and "Black Qualls," "Dragonball Durag," "Fair Chance," and "Innerstellar Love," the latter four being released in 2020. The track "Unrequited Love" had previously been used in an episode of the anime Carole & Tuesday in 2019. The album was executive produced by Thundercat and Flying Lotus, and features guest appearances from Louis Cole, Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington, Childish Gambino, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, BadBadNotGood, and Zack Fox.
"Oh Sheit It's X" is a song by American singer-songwriter Thundercat. He co-wrote it with record producers Flying Lotus, Mono/Poly, and Durand Furbee for his second studio album Apocalypse. Brainfeeder released it as a single on May 7, 2013. Musically, "Oh Sheit It's X" is a funk and disco song, whose lyrics describe the protagonist in an altered state of consciousness after consuming MDMA—otherwise known as "ecstasy" or "X"—at a party.
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