Name: Hard To Be a God
Brand: Whitney K

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

MDR57

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Colour

black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-06-24

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

5053760088424

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Bonus disc: Yes

MDR57X

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[r23762858]

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Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes

Extended format: Yes

With Bonus CD - Goodnight EP

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5053760088431

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "5053760088431"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes / Signed copies: No / red

Artist

Whitney K

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Maple Death

Don’t ya know it’s hard to be a god. No reason to sugar coat it, what you’re getting is peak Whitney K, poetry in motion and masterful writing where words, harmony, arrangements all dance in the same direction, free flowing through songs about change and memory. A voice as an instrument. 

Hard To Be A God is the new mini-album by Whitney K and follows 2021’s acclaimed Two Years. Now based in Montreal, once again Konner Whitney is accompanied by friend, musician and all-hands-on-deck collaborator Joshua Boguski and by multi-instrumentalist Avalon Tassonyi. This five track release is a massive leap forward in both sound and songs. It's full of lonesome and heartfelt sounds with Lou Reed esque delivery vocally

From the opening notes of ‘While Digging Through The Snow’ it’s apparent that something magical is happening, like witnessing a “state of grace”, a breathtaking delivery where the game has slowed down and the band is dazzled while proceeding in trance through the experience. This is ‘a moment’, a future staple, a daydreamer ballad where reassessing one’s life stock and its surroundings gently evolves into a wider narrative, one where you are left contemplating colonial legacy and its inevitable conclusion. ‘Not Unlike A Rock’ is a rollicking bongo cruiser plateauing with mixolydian guitar licks that would make deadheads realign; the cartwheeling percussion on ‘Two Strangers’ nervously advances carrying Queen Victoria on her drive, another abstract metaphor for colonialism in Canada. ‘Hard To Be A God’... well, it does take a while for a lesson to sink in. ‘Song For A Friend’ is the epic closer, a stunning majestic beautifully orchestrated song about losing that someone to another more desirable city… or is it about the feeling of being left behind? Another hypnotic performance soaring above a wash of strings and piano weaving.

Hard To Be A God’s hallucinatory pastoral album cover, a painting by Caro Deschênes depicting a rearing dog soaring above the deceased bodies of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Kris Kristofferson, epitomizes in many ways Whitney K’s approach. This is not simply a ‘kill yr idols’ situation, this is an open conversation, where storytelling becomes visionary and frames personal, poetic and often playful dérives through the histories of their imagination, bending and elevating a whole serious inventory of dreams.

Hard To Be a God

Music GB