exclusive premiere: stand up for avery r young’s “sit down job”

History and liberation have always played a central role in singer avery r. young’s work. His debut record, 2013’s booker t. soltreyne: a race rekkid, paid tribute to a portmanteau of soul and jazz legends with a standout track honoring Fred Hampton. Now the capital letter-averse artist is back, with a song that looks back to classic funk through a modern lens. Distorted wah guitar and noisy sweeping synths add a taste of urgency to a song that is ultimately about perseverance and strength. “sit down job” is a hyper-layered affair; the kind of track you feel in your body first before you play it back to catch the lyrics and subtleties.

avery tells us it’s “about me presenting my choice to practice my art to my big mama who wanted to make sure I had a job that paid lots of money and/or didn’t require the manual labor she endured on her job on the assembly line as a punch press operator. the album is named tubman as harriet tubman embodies endurance and the ways in which blk body in American is a versatile one. the record is the soundtrack for the book neckbone which is a series of visual and traditional poetry that documents the endurance of a young boy learning to be a blk man in this country.”

tubman is out July 19, 2019 on FPE Records. Pre-order it here.