Music

growing concerns poetry collective announce 2nd studio album, big dark bright futures

September 10, 2020
168 Picks

Growing Concerns Poetry Collective announce their return with, Big Dark Bright Futures, their 2nd studio album which is out on October 16th via self-release. Thematically, the Chicago based trio have taken time to craft a body of work that mirrors the current state of the world. Comprising of Mykele Deville, McKenzie Chinn, and Jeffrey Michael Austin — Growing Concerns Poetry Collective’s new album takes the listener on an expansive sonic journey that’s packaged in 14 fulfilling songs. Meandering between personal and socio political issues, Big Dark Bright Futures is layered with influences of Afrofuturism, Hip Hop and Poetry.

Lead single “Shout Across Mountains” and its joyous refrain “we full-voice people!” opens the album by celebrating not only the fullness of Black cultural sound, but the fullness of Black culture itself, even in the face of new hostilities. In “Come to Me Open,” band members Mykele Deville, McKenzie Chinn, and Jeff Austin each preside over one of the song’s three “movements” in a sensual exploration of modern love shaped by diaspora. Deeper in the album, Chinn’s “First You Need a Body” exalts the magic of Black feminine sexuality, while Deville’s “Breaking” calls out the numbing impact of a social media-driven 24-hour news cycle fueled by incessant trauma. Chinn and Deville’s voices rejoin one another in “Some Dawn,” the album’s final track, which uses Chicago and its long history to imagine a world where peace can finally thrive on the other side of justice.

You can checkout the Talia Koylass directed video for Shout Across Mountains, which features footage from protests sparked by the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a host of Black Americans killed at the hands of police and white supremacists.

Follow Growing Concerns Poetry Collective on @growingconcernspoets

Related