About this item

RIYL: Anticon, TV on the Radio, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Modest Mouse. First album in 5 years, following AOKOHIO (Joyful Noise Recordings). Self released on Waterlines, the new record label from Anticon co-founder, Yoni Wolf.

For nearly three decades, WHY? have thrived in subverting expectations. Across seven unpredictable and adventurous studio albums, the band led by Cincinnati songwriter Yoni Wolf has stretched the fringes of psychedelic pop, hip-hop, and electronic music. No matter the genre experiments and thematic departures, their discography is remarkably consistent, anchored by Wolf's disarming lyrical transparency. His writing is provocative, self-lacerating, and always considered, coming from a place of blunt emotional openness.

The Well I Fell Into, the eighth full-length from WHY?, is Wolf at his most cohesive and poignant. An autopsy of heartbreak, the album charts the ups and downs of a devastating breakup while trading bitterness for healing. Self-released on Waterlines, Wolf's new label that follows in the footsteps of Anticon, the trailblazing artist-run collective he co-founded, its 14 tracks stand as the band's prettiest and most immediate work yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've long been a fan of Why's own brand of now almost-unrecognisable hip-hop. I played Alopcia and Eskimo Snow to death all those years ago, but 'The Well I Fell Into' seems like a much more mature, song-based display of melodic inventiveness and textural intrigue. It's got all of the appeal of those early years, with a much more evolved sonic palate.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lauderdale Detour
2. Marigold
3. Brand New
4. G-dzillah G’dolah
5. When We Do The Dance
6. Jump
7. Later At The Loon
8. Nis(s)an Dreams, Pt. 1
9. The Letters, Etc.
10. What’s Me?
11. Sin Imperial
12. Atreyu
13. Versa Go!
14. Sending Out A Pamphlet.