Thundercat // It Is What It Is

Brainfeeder

4 out of 5 stars

From the sounds of it, Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) may still be a bit hungover.  Three years after Drunk, our lovable misfit of a bass-slinging protagonist has reawakened in a haze, contemplating life and love on It Is What It is. This is a much more subdued record than its predecessor, a series of falsetto ruminations played to a room full of manga comics, empty bottles of Mountain Dew Game Fuel, and any lovelorn kindred spirit out there listening through their Xbox Live headset. An unabashed geek, Thundercat makes no pretenses about who he is — and when he does, we see right through it to the heart and humor. "I may be covered in cat hair, but I still smell good," he humble-brags on "Dragonball Durag," a sweetly self-conscious serenade hiding an earnest plea for validation ("How do I look in my durag?") We hear Thundercat perk up a bit when his friends are over — such as on "I Love Louis Cole" (the titular object of affection providing drums and keys)  and "Black Qualls" (featuring Childish Gambino along with The Internet's Steve Lacy and Slave's Steve Arrington). Otherwise, he's content to soak in the lushly woven depths of his deft fretwork — after all, *It Is What It Is. — Matt Swanseger