We don’t tip our editorial hand too often here at Vanyaland, but we’ll admit this: At some point next week we’ll publish a short list of the best songs to hear across Memorial Day weekend at Boston Calling Music Festival, and Genesis Owusu’s 2022 banger “Get Inspired” will be included.
Or so we thought.
Turns out we might scratch that off the list in favor of the Ghanaian-Australian artist’s fresh banger, a manic electro-funk sci-fi thumper called “Leaving The Light.” The high-energy track is billed as an anthem of survival and perseverance, and it hit the streams today (May 18). It’s sure to sound absolutely fucking bonkers when Owusu hits the Blue Stage in the 5pm hour of Sunday’s Boston Calling slate.
The urgent “Leaving The Light” crashes our hearts and playlists with a lot more firepower in the Genesis Owusu cannon, including news of a new sophomore album called Struggler, out August 18 via OURNESS / AWAL, and a fall headlining tour of North America that plays The Sinclair in Cambridge on October 19.
“The ‘Struggler’ runs through an absurd world with no ‘where’ or ‘why’ at hand,” says Owusu of the new album. “Just an instinctual inner rhythm, yelling at them to survive the pestilence and lighting bolts coming from above. A roach just keeps roaching.”
Crank “Leaving The Light” up to the highest of heavens, and feast those eyes up on the track’s official video, created in collaboration with Aotearoa New Zealand visual artist Lisa Reihana.
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