Your Queen Is a Reptile

Last updated

Your Queen Is a Reptile
Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is a Reptile.jpg
Studio album by
Sons of Kemet
Released30 March 2018 (2018-03-30)
Genre Avant-garde jazz
Length55:34
Label Impulse!
Producer Shabaka Hutchings, Dilip Harris
Sons of Kemet chronology
Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do
(2015)		Your Queen Is a Reptile
(2018)		 Black to the Future
(2021)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 81/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
Exclaim! 8/10 [3]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [5]
MusicOMH Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Pitchfork 7.6/10 [7]
The Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Uncut 8/10 [9]
Under the Radar 8.5/10 [10]
Vice A− [11]

Your Queen Is a Reptile is the third album by British jazz group Sons of Kemet, released in March 2018 on Impulse! Records. Band leader Shabaka Hutchings wrote and plays saxophone on all tracks, Theon Cross plays tuba, and Seb Rochford and Tom Skinner play drums. It also features toaster Congo Natty and performance poet Josh Idehen. [12]

Contents

The album title refers to the British monarchy and the Reptilian conspiracy theory, with the sleeve notes depicting the monarchy as not representing black immigrants: "Your Queen is not our Queen / She does not see us as human". The woman to whom the first track refers, Ada Eastman, was Hutchings's great-grandmother from Barbados, [13] while the others refer to influential black women throughout history. [7]

Your Queen Is a Reptile was nominated for the 2018 Mercury Prize. [14] The album topped The Wire magazine's annual critics' poll and was named release of the year. [15] This is the band's longest album, at 55 minutes and 34 seconds.

Track listing

All tracks written by Shabaka Hutchings.

  1. "My Queen Is Ada Eastman" – 6:41
  2. "My Queen Is Mamie Phipps Clark" – 5:31
  3. "My Queen Is Harriet Tubman" – 5:40
  4. "My Queen Is Anna Julia Cooper" – 5:07
  5. "My Queen Is Angela Davis" – 6:35
  6. "My Queen Is Nanny of the Maroons" – 6:44
  7. "My Queen Is Yaa Asantewaa" – 7:04
  8. "My Queen Is Albertina Sisulu" – 5:20
  9. "My Queen Is Doreen Lawrence" – 6:52

Personnel

Sons of Kemet

Additional musicians

References

  1. ↑ "Your Queen Is A Reptile by Sons of Kemet Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic . Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  2. ↑ Jurek, Thom. "Your Queen Is a Reptile – Sons of Kemet". AllMusic . Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  3. ↑ Bauer, Matt (20 April 2018). "Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is A Reptile". Exclaim! . Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  4. ↑ O'Connor, Roisin; Hasted, Nick; Kaplan, Ilana (28 March 2018). "Album reviews: Kacey Musgraves, The Vaccines, Kate Nash, Frankie Cosmos, Sons of Kemet, Mount Eerie" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  5. ↑ Waring, Charles (April 2018). "Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is a Reptile". Mojo (293): 87.
  6. ↑ McClean, Brianna (3 April 2018). "Sons Of Kemet – Your Queen Is A Reptile". MusicOMH . Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  7. 1 2 Bloom, Madison (30 March 2018). "Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is a Reptile". Pitchfork . Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  8. ↑ Bungey, John (6 April 2018). "Jazz review: Nels Cline 4: Currents, Constellations; Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile" . The Times . Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  9. ↑ Pattison, Louis (June 2018). "Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is a Reptile". Uncut (253): 35.
  10. ↑ Watkins, Michael (10 May 2018). "Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is a Reptile (Impulse!)". Under the Radar . Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  11. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1 December 2018). "Robert Christgau on Sons of Kemet's Unique 'Your Queen Is a Reptile'". Vice . Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  12. ↑ May, Chris (21 February 2018). "Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is A Reptile". All About Jazz. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  13. ↑ "Premiere: Sons Of Kemet – 'My Queen Is Ada Eastman'". Clash Magazine. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  14. ↑ "See the 2018 Shortlist". Mercuryprize.com. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  15. ↑ "2018 Rewind: Releases of the Year 1–50" . The Wire. No. 419. London. January 2019. p. 32 – via Exact Editions.
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