Joy Oladokun - Observations From a Crowded Room
Joy Oladokun - Observations From a Crowded Room
Written, produced and largely performed by Oladokun alone, the album marks a personal and creative turning point for the Nashville-based artist and was crafted during a period of intense introspection and que stioning. The 15-track collection—comprised of 12 songs and 3 spoken interludes—finds Oladokun reflecting on her place in the world, both as a person and an artist, while blending her pop-folk roots with electronic and psychedelic elements. Earlier this year, Oladokun shared two additional album tracks: “QUESTIONS, CHAOS & FAITH” and “DRUGS,” which received critical attention from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, OUT Magazine and more.
Reflecting on the project, Oladokun shares, “This album became a way for me to write things, feel things, process things. Because, as the producer, I just had to sit with these songs for so long. It became really healing in a sense of, ‘I made this. I’m listening to an album that I genuinely love. All the sounds and bits and bobs came from me with the help of just an engineer.’ It was transformative. So, it started out as, ‘I quit,’ and it has ended up as a fresh start.”
Of Oladokun, The New York Times praises, “her songs are conversational and confessional, and her hooky but profound melodies turn her lyrics into mantras,” while Rolling Stone calls them, “Nashville’s most low-key musical revolutionary…in this time of shifting priorities away from work toward self-care and connection with others, Oladokun is offering a master class in those subjects” and NPR Music asserts, “She has a remarkable ability to distill how forces at work in the world…she can make even social and political protest feel like an intimate, warmly human act.”
TRACK LIST
1. LETTER FROM A BLACKBIRD
2. AM I?
3. OBSERVATION #1
4. STRONG ONES
5. DRUGS
6. QUESTIONS, CHAOS & FAITH
7. NO COUNTRY
8. OBSERVATION #2
9. HOLLYWOOD
10. flowers
11. DUST/DIVINITY
12. GOOD ENOUGH
13. OBSERVATION #3
14. I’D MISS THE BIRDS
15. GOODBYE
Observations From a Crowded Room is available here on LP and CD.
**Preorders for store pickup will be held for three months after the 10/18/24 release. Please pick up your Observations From a Crowded Room preorder no later than January 18th.