The New Faith

Following his impressive 2020 debut album, Spider Tales (reviewed in October 2020, #161), The New Faith fulfils the promise of greater things to come from multi-instrumentalist, composer and scholar Jake Blount. Recorded mostly in Blount’s bedroom during the COVID-19 lockdown period, Blount describes The New Faith as a vision of ‘Black American religious music in a future devastated by warfare and anthropogenic climate change… composed entirely of new arrangements and subtle rewrites of traditional Black folk songs.’

In contrast to what sounds like a bleak, dystopian setting, songs such as ‘Death Have Mercy’ meld ages-old hymns and spirituals with 21st-century rap and hip-hop in an alchemical reaction that exalts all of the ingredients. While fire and damnation fuel the apocalyptic narrative of Blount’s Afro-futurist parables, mellifluous grooves and hooky refrains make songs like ‘The Downward Road’, ‘Didn’t It Rain’ and ‘Give Up the World’ as danceable as they are memorable. Produced by Brian Slattery and featuring guest appearances by a passel of new country and indie-folk artists, such as D’orjay the Singing Shaman, Kaïa Kater, Lizzie No and Brandi Pace, The New Faith represents a boldly conceived hybrid project, which ranks with the best American releases of 2022.