Starchild & The New Romantic Announces Debut Album Language

The past two years have been busy and fruitful for Bryndon Cook, who releases music as Starchild & The New Romantic. The Brooklyn-based musician and songwriter has spent much of this time touring and collaborating with Solange on her Seat at the Table tour, which included performances across the globe at a variety of museums and unique venues. All while doing this, Cook signed to Ghostly International, released his debut EP Crucial (2016), was profiled by The New York Times as an Up Next artist to watch and was included in Rolling Stones' 25 Under 25 list for 2017.

No sign of slowing down, Cook is excited to announce the tracklist and release date for his debut full length Language. Out Februarty 23rd via Ghostly, Language is the sound of Bryndon Cook occupying his space with unapologetic eloquence, envisioning a world where the crimson qualities of sensitivity and softness aren't shamed, they are celebrated as magic.

Today you can hear the self-titled single from Language, which puts Bryndon's elegance and song writing chops on full display. The song's gliding keys and funky synth lines help to elevate a story of a man enamored by his lover's words.

Listen to "Language" Here

https://soundcloud.com/ghostly/starchild-the-new-romantic-language

Spotify

"Black boys have a whole world of complexity that society makes us stomp out of ourselves." Language communicates Cook's refusal to do so. Describing himself early-on as a "young romantic boy from Maryland," he's long been a dreamer, a student of black music's rich lineage and its intersection with pop. Cook is drawn to landmark moments where artists have found truth in darkness; the diverse language of music living in their core. These records in which phrases and motifs are deployed to document worth and define perspective, identity, calls to action. The pop album as artistic statement, as thesis. This record is his; lifting off from the monochrome world of Crucial, his 2016 EP on Ghostly International, up towards a dazzling blood-rush of sky-high defiance and autonomy. On Language, Cook refines his phonics for funk, electro, and R&B, and arrives at a revelation, best summarized by a single motto: "my sensitivity is my strength."

The artist is bold and mercurial, using the album format to champion intersectionality and challenge notions and binaries; old and new, black and white, religiosity and sexuality. At first, the objectives were more intimate; he wrote as a means of diversion and catharsis. Lyrically, the album fixates on dissipated love, detailing his dependence on the device that once linked him to his former partner during tours.

Watch Starchild & The New Romantic's Live Performance From National Sawdust

https://youtu.be/sFy_ptm2xqY

"When I wrote these songs, the sunshine of my mind was beginning to set in a dark place. I found myself developing almost a surrogate relationship with my telephone. I would fall asleep at night clutching it, waiting for a call. When we parted, I would become attached to my phone as a conduit to this person I had lost. Melodies came to me all over the world. Quite often, hooks and choruses, which were catchy to me and distracted my mind from the immense, earth-shattering pain I was being railroaded through."

Sonically and spiritually, Cook finds guidance in grand standards: looking up to producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, studying their contributions to the New Jack Swing era and pop music at large. Touchstone statements like Janet Jackson's Control, Michael Jackson's Bad, and Prince's 1999. Singular breakout LPs from Terence Trent D'Arby and Bobby Brown. The honesty of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska and Carole King's Tapestry; the ingenuity of Laurie Anderson. Cook also reflects on recent years with Solange, as part of her touring band, and collaborations with Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange, as reminders of artistic individuality. "Being around them now urges me to find my own way of delivering my own messages."

Cook expands his message and its impact by arranging talents. For the first time, sessions included members of his band, The New Romantic, allowing for keyboard/synth parts to be recorded straight-through, with no punch-ins, and a more dynamic atmosphere overall. Further, Cook recruits The Newark Boys Chorus to underscore the most poignant lines of "Boys Choir," giving them the entire stage for the coda: "Be it understood. / This love is mine."

Moves like this get to the root of the record: a contemplation of the boyhood that never truly leaves us. "In the black community, any sign of femininity or childlike wonder is often misconstrued as weakness, because society has always expected us to be strong. They prey on us as kids and take us to prison like adults. They kill us on the street."

Here, elevated, inside the carmine dust of Language, those pressures and boundaries evaporate. "We land on the moon, and we dance on it," proclaims Cook. "We scream up there where no one can judge us."

Pre-order Language at The Ghostly Store: https://www.theghostlystore.com/products/language
Or at the retailer of your choice: https://Ghostly.lnk.to/starchild-language

Starchild & The New Romantic - Language

(February 23rd - Ghostly International)

01. Language

02. Mood

03. Only If U Knew

04. Hands Off?

05. Hangin On

06. Black Diamond

07. Ophelia's Room

08. Some People I Know

09. Can I Come Over?

10. Doubts

11. Good Stuff

12. Boys Choir

13. Lost Boys

14. Hand To God

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