{ "id": "epxfpwcqx5", "slug": "distracted-album", "title": "Distracted (album)", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.music", "label": "Music", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.music" }, { "id": "culture.music.works", "label": "Musical works and recordings", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.music.works" }, { "id": "culture.music.works.recordings", "label": "Albums and recorded releases", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.music.works.recordings" }, { "id": "culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums", "label": "Studio albums", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums" }, { "id": "culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums.blues-and-jazz-albums", "label": "Blues and jazz albums", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums.blues-and-jazz-albums" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums", "label": "United States · 2021 and later: Studio albums", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021", "label": "United States · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.music", "label": "Music", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.music" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works", "label": "Musical works and recordings", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works.recordings", "label": "Albums and recorded releases", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works.recordings" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums", "label": "Studio albums", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Distracted is Thundercat's fifth studio album, released April 3, 2026 on Brainfeeder, his first in six years after It Is What It Is. Produced mainly by Greg Kurstin, it features A$AP Rocky, Tame Impala, WILLOW, Lil Yachty, Channel Tres, and a posthumous Mac Miller verse.", "snippet": "Distracted is Thundercat's fifth studio album, released April 3, 2026 on Brainfeeder, his first in six years after It Is What It Is. Produced mainly by Greg Kurstin, it features A$AP Rocky, Tame Impala, WILLOW, Lil Yachty, Channel Tres, and a posthumous Mac Miller verse.", "node": "culture.music.works.recordings.studio_albums.blues-and-jazz-albums", "markdown": "# Distracted (album)\n\n**Distracted** is the fifth studio album by the American bassist and singer Thundercat (Stephen Lee Bruner), released on April 3, 2026 through Brainfeeder Records. It is his first album in six years, following the Grammy-winning *It Is What It Is* (2020), and was created primarily with the pop producer [Greg Kurstin](https://www.edgepedia.org/greg-kurstin), with additional production from [Flying Lotus](https://www.edgepedia.org/flying-lotus), Kenny Beats (Kenneth Blume), and [The Lemon Twigs](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lemon-twigs).[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/) • [2](https://concord.com/concord-albums/distracted/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Artist / album | Fifth studio album by Thundercat, released April 3, 2026 on Brainfeeder[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/) |\n| Gap | First album in six years after *It Is What It Is* (2020)[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/) |\n| Primary producer | Greg Kurstin, known for work with Adele, Paul McCartney, Sia, Beyoncé, and Beck[2](https://concord.com/concord-albums/distracted/) |\n| Featured guests | A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Tame Impala, Channel Tres, Lil Yachty, and a posthumous Mac Miller verse on \"She Knows Too Much\"[2](https://concord.com/concord-albums/distracted/) |\n| Length and format | 15 tracks, 46:18; recorded at No Expectations Studios, Hollywood, CA[3](https://www.allmusic.com/album/distracted-mw0004760268) |\n| Lead single | \"I Did This To Myself\" featuring Lil Yachty, released with the album announcement on January 29, 2026[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/) |\n| Reception | Metacritic metascore of 80 from 11 critic reviews (10 positive, 1 mixed); Pitchfork scored it 7.8[4](https://metacritic.com/music/distracted/thundercat/critic-reviews) • [5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted/) |\n\n## Background and production\n\nThundercat announced the album on January 29, 2026, describing it as his first release in six years. In the announcement's press release he wrote, \"I don't think the heartbreak ever stopped. If it ain't a girl, it's taxes. If it ain't taxes, it's World War III. If it ain't World War III, it's a new update to the phone.\"[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/)\n\nThe most consequential production change is that Flying Lotus does not run the sessions for the first time in Thundercat's solo career. Greg Kurstin, the hitmaker behind Adele's \"Hello\" and a contributor to Beck's later work, handles the majority of the album, and reviewers attribute to him the record's cleaner, more pop-leaning sound: choruses that resolve cleanly and basslines held in place rather than sprawling outward.[6](https://whynow.co.uk/read/thundercat-distracted-review) Kurstin and Thundercat share a background in the Los Angeles jazz scene and had previously worked together on Gorillaz' \"Cracker Island.\"[3](https://www.allmusic.com/album/distracted-mw0004760268) Flying Lotus, Kenny Beats, and The Lemon Twigs contribute additional production turns.[2](https://concord.com/concord-albums/distracted/)\n\nThe album was recorded at No Expectations Studios in Hollywood, California.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/album/distracted-mw0004760268)\n\n## Themes and music\n\nDistracted captures what its label describes as the tension between overstimulation and introspection. Thundercat is skeptical of technological \"progress,\" joking about [Star Trek](https://www.edgepedia.org/star-trek) and childhood dreams of space travel before pivoting to the anticlimax of reality: drones without lasers, phones that only upgrade cameras, and innovation reduced to spying and access.[2](https://concord.com/concord-albums/distracted/) Apple Music's editorial summary frames the record as capturing \"the addled feeling of contemporary overstimulation\" and repurposing it for creative fuel.[7](https://music.apple.com/us/album/distracted/1861531667)\n\nGrief remains a central thread. The album continues the themes of *It Is What It Is*, which was partially written about the sudden loss of Thundercat's close friend and collaborator [Mac Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/mac-miller), who died in 2018.[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/) Its emotional center is \"She Knows Too Much,\" a collaboration recorded with Miller before his death and completed years later with his estate's blessing. Miller's verse includes the line \"You can talk about the universe and energy / But all you really want is a celebrity.\"[6](https://whynow.co.uk/read/thundercat-distracted-review) Thundercat told Spin that Miller's death was \"a very key element and fundamental\" in his sobriety, and that he was grateful Miller's family allowed the song to be used.[8](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/macs-death-was-an-extremely-traumatic-experience-for-me-that-was-definitely-a-very-key-element-and-fundamental-in-my-sobriety-thundercat-on-how-losing-mac-miller-made-him-change-his-life) He also mourns the jazz producer-promoter Meghan Stabile on the record.[9](https://theweek.com/culture-life/music/reviews-thundercat-courtney-barnett-angine-de-poitrine)\n\nMusically, the album fuses jazz, funk, soul, and soft rock. AllMusic calls it Thundercat's most refined synthesis of fusion, funk, smooth soul, and soft rock, containing nine songs made with Kurstin.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/album/distracted-mw0004760268) Reviewers note a clearer production palette than earlier records, with grooves that nod to late seventies and early eighties soul without drifting into pastiche.[10](https://deadtankrecords.com/blogs/news/thundercat-refines-his-world-on-distracted) Standout collaborations include \"No More Lies\" with [Tame Impala](https://www.edgepedia.org/tame-impala), built on shared atmosphere and restraint;[10](https://deadtankrecords.com/blogs/news/thundercat-refines-his-world-on-distracted) \"ThunderWave,\" a duet with WILLOW in which the two voices crest in repeated unison;[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted/) \"Funny Friends\" with A$AP Rocky;[11](https://ninjatune.net/release/thundercat/distracted) and \"What Is Left To Say,\" a yacht-rock-leaning track with production from The Lemon Twigs.[7](https://music.apple.com/us/album/distracted/1861531667) The closing run of \"A.D.D. Through the Roof,\" \"Great Americans,\" and \"You Left Without Saying Goodbye\" turns inward, sketching characters barricaded from the world by pets, chores, and the internet.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted/)\n\n## Release and singles\n\nThe full 15-track album runs from the opener \"Candlelight\" (featuring contributions from DOMi Louna and JD Beck) to the closer \"You Left Without Saying Goodbye.\"[1](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/) Physical editions include a standard red vinyl LP and a limited clear/black marbled \"smoke effect\" LP, both with artwork and photography by Neil Krug, plus a CD in a gatefold card wallet.[11](https://ninjatune.net/release/thundercat/distracted) [MusicBrainz](https://www.edgepedia.org/musicbrainz) lists a US CD (catalog BFCD165) and a worldwide digital release dated April 3, 2026, and a 16-track Japanese CD edition.[12](https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/cd80d129-cb28-4e70-b4c2-b4ac052cb90e)\n\n## Critical reception\n\nDistracted received generally favorable reviews. Metacritic assigned a metascore of 80 based on 11 critic reviews, with 10 positive and 1 mixed.[4](https://metacritic.com/music/distracted/thundercat/critic-reviews) The Quietus scored it 90, calling it \"a deeply human, painstakingly crafted album\" that transmutes collective exhaustion, grief, and hyper-connectivity into progressive R&B.[4](https://metacritic.com/music/distracted/thundercat/critic-reviews) Mojo called it the all-out pop album Thundercat had been hinting at, and Uncut judged it possibly his most coherent and smoothest album to date.[4](https://metacritic.com/music/distracted/thundercat/critic-reviews)\n\nIn Pitchfork, the critic Daniel Felsenthal, a fiction writer and essayist whose work has appeared in [The Village Voice](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-village-voice), Artforum, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, scored the album 7.8. He wrote that it \"dives headlong into resignation,\" portraying wounded, calloused characters who endure breakups but learn nothing from them, and that the record works because it resembles a pop blowout at first before pulling the rug out.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted/) A recurring reservation across reviews is uneven pacing in the second half: the whynow review found the back half settling into a mid-tempo plateau where the bass retreats into background warmth,[6](https://whynow.co.uk/read/thundercat-distracted-review) and a Chorus.Reviews aggregation of eight professional reviews, giving a consensus score of 80.38, noted recurring criticism of uneven pacing and occasional lyrical missteps alongside praise for \"She Knows Too Much,\" \"Candlelight,\" and \"Great Americans.\"[13](https://chorus.reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted) Rolling Stone's Will Hermes described Thundercat as \"staring down loss while making the struggle as beautiful, funny, spacey, and vibe-y as he can,\" with a sound of \"'70s jazz fusion meets '80s quiet storm.\"[9](https://theweek.com/culture-life/music/reviews-thundercat-courtney-barnett-angine-de-poitrine)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Thundercat Announces New Album Distracted, Pitchfork (Kiana Mickles, January 29, 2026)](https://pitchfork.com/news/thundercat-announces-new-album-distracted/)\n2. [Distracted by Thundercat, Concord Label Group](https://concord.com/concord-albums/distracted/)\n3. [Distracted: Thundercat Tracks & Reviews, AllMusic (Andy Kellman)](https://www.allmusic.com/album/distracted-mw0004760268)\n4. [Critic Reviews for Distracted, Metacritic](https://metacritic.com/music/distracted/thundercat/critic-reviews)\n5. [Thundercat: Distracted Album Review, Pitchfork (Daniel Felsenthal, April 7, 2026)](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted/)\n6. [Distracted review | Thundercat centres Mac Miller, grief, and the price of a polished comeback, whynow (Elliot John, April 3, 2026)](https://whynow.co.uk/read/thundercat-distracted-review)\n7. [Distracted - Album by Thundercat, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/distracted/1861531667)\n8. [\"Mac's death was an extremely traumatic experience for me\": Thundercat on how losing Mac Miller made him change his life, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/macs-death-was-an-extremely-traumatic-experience-for-me-that-was-definitely-a-very-key-element-and-fundamental-in-my-sobriety-thundercat-on-how-losing-mac-miller-made-him-change-his-life)\n9. [Music reviews: Angine de Poitrine, Thundercat, and Courtney Barnett, The Week](https://theweek.com/culture-life/music/reviews-thundercat-courtney-barnett-angine-de-poitrine)\n10. [Thundercat Refines His World on \"Distracted\", Dead Tank Records (April 18, 2026)](https://deadtankrecords.com/blogs/news/thundercat-refines-his-world-on-distracted)\n11. [Distracted / Thundercat / Release, Ninja Tune](https://ninjatune.net/release/thundercat/distracted)\n12. [Release group \"Distracted\" by Thundercat, MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/cd80d129-cb28-4e70-b4c2-b4ac052cb90e)\n13. [Distracted - Thundercat | Review Score, Chorus.Reviews](https://chorus.reviews/albums/thundercat-distracted)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Blues and jazz albums*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Distracted (album)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Distracted (album)](https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album](https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Distracted (album)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/distracted-album. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Distracted is Thundercat's fifth studio album, released April 3, 2026 on Brainfeeder, his first in six years after It Is What It Is." }