Sheep, Dog & Wolf Announces Second Album
Daniel McBride’s long-awaited return has been littered with obstructions. the new record showcases his unique ability to document a young life in disarray, against a complex backdrop of mutant R&B, post-classical, minimalism and electronica.
The album was written, performed and recorded entirely alone, and is accompanied by striking visuals; McBride features in his own videos, using his body as a blank canvas to portray emotion and artistic expression, with alarming juxtapositions striking a balance between darkness and humour.
‘Two-Minds’ is McBride’s first full release since his debut ‘Egospect’ dropped in 2013 to critical acclaim, shortlisted for 2014’s Taite Prize (NZ’s Mercury equivalent, won that year by Lorde). “I’m still really proud of that record,” McBride notes. “But I’ve moved on since.” This long-awaited album is a quantum leap: more refined, dextrous and ambitious than its predecessor, full of joy, colour and energy. In a complex and often breathtaking 41 minutes, its 8 songs weave dizzying rhythms, exquisite choral harmonies, pulsing post-classical hues and spacious dabs of woodwind. Intense personal reflections entwine lyrically with love songs and balladry. Yet there’s no escaping its dark and painful origins:
"The album was written during a period of chronic physical and mental illness; it's a document of that time. But I still see Two-Minds as a positive statement - it's about recovery as much as it is about illness, and about the shafts of light that could shine through even in the depths of it."
Accompanied by an epic video of unsettling imagery, bizarre dance routines and dark humour, the title track - one of the album’s more succinct pop songs - captures the duality and confusion surrounding McBride’s relationship with mental illness: ‘I felt paralysed by it, limited by it, pulled apart by it - but simultaneously dependent on it. The music video takes the anxiety at the root of this conflict and makes it manifest; it pursues me, antagonises me, but in the end it only seems to want to protect me - albeit in a way that's more disturbing than any attack. To me, this video feels like an anxiety dream playing out in the real world, like a panic attack put to film.’
‘Two-Minds’ is released February 19th on Aphrodite