DJ Shadow Announces Double Album 'Our Pathetic Age'

DJ Shadow has announced his newest project Our Pathetic Age, an ambitious double album out November 15 on Mass Appeal.

The result of one of the prolific DJ’s most creative periods, the LP is divided into an instrumental section and another featuring vocal collaborations, tagging the likes of Run The Jewels, Nas, Dave East, Samuel T. Herring, Paul Banks, Wiki, Inspectah Deck Ghostface Killah and Raekwon to name a few. He also reunites with his early Solesides collaborators Lateef The Truthseeker and Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), along with St. Louis MCs Rockwell Knucles and Tef Poe, fellow Bay Area musicians Fantastic Negrito and Jumbo is Dr.ama, and Brooklyn MC Stro.

“More than anything, I try to get a sense of the mood of society as a whole. The subtle signals that humans send each other, the way people behave, their frustrations and ebbs and flows. In my part of the world, people are scared. There’s rampant homelessness, and a real fear of falling into generational poverty. People are addicted to, and addled by distraction; they’re angry and confused, and disaffected by their own governmental institutions,” Shadow said in a statement. “There’s songs that are inspired by this energy and seek to harness it, to make sense of it. In some cases, there’s attempts to salve the wound; in others, the songs merely observe but don’t offer solutions.  Despite the title, it’s a hopeful, vibrant album…there is always light in darkness. I want it to reflect the times we live in, a signpost in the ground to mark the era…Our Pathetic Age.”

To commemorate the announcement, Shadow provided a first listen to the instrumental side of the album with the experimental hip-hop single, “Rosie.”

Stream DJ Shadow’s “Rosie” on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. Our Pathetic Age drops November 15.

In other music news, take a listen to Skyzoo and Pete Rock’s collaborative album Retropolitan.