Following the release of UGLY, the third studio album from slowthai released on Friday via Method Records/Interscope Records, the British force of nature has shared a video for the album opener “YUM.” Not for the faint hearted, the Crowns & Owls directed visual epically nails the propulsive panic attack and intrusiveness of the song.
A stand out from the album, “Yum” is a visceral vociferous introduction to UGLY and the last song slowthai and producer Dan Carey, with additional production from Zach Nahome, created for the record. The video encapsulates everything you might expect to spill from slowthai’s complex mind at the time of recording the track.
“More coke, more weed, more E’s, more trips,” he raps over an industrial techno masterpiece. slowthai has quit smoking weed and drinking to excess but the impulse doesn’t go away. “‘Yum’ is me saying this is what people want me to do but this isn’t doing anything for me. I’m ready to leave it all behind but it keeps pulling me back — more this, more that, it’s never enough.”
To celebrate the album’s release and coming off the back of a short, sharp six date gig run of local pubs and small venues in the UK, slowthai hosted the UGLY pop-up shop at Truman Brewery in London over the weekend.
Partnering with Rough Trade, slowthai greeted fans at the shop all day on Saturday, signing copies of UGLY and printing exclusive t-shirts. Archive merch plus items from music videos and artwork such as the stocks from Nothing Great About Britain, and the decapitated Boris Johnson head that he pulled out of a bag during his performance at the Mercury Music Prize Awards, were all on display.
Following his Mercury Music Prize nominated and much lauded debut Nothing Great About Britain and his chart-topping sophomore album TYRON where he turned the lens inward, UGLY flips the narrative once again on the UK’s most exhilarating musical talents.
