Surprise! Shamir has shared his new album ‘Hope’

Late last year, Shamir emerged with a brand new track, ‘Tryna Survive’ and collaborated with Sad13. But we weren’t totally prepared for him to drop a new album completely out of the blue. Yet without a lot of warning (except a tweet yesterday saying “fuck this! Im dropping an album tomorrow, be ready”), he’s unleashed his new record, ‘Hope.’ And it’s totally free to listen to and download via SoundCloud! ‘Hope’ has been born out of Shamir’s disillusionment with music and the polish his work had developed. In a statement on SoundCloud accompanying the album, he says: “I was gonna quit music this weekend. From day 1 it was clear I was an accidental pop star. I loved the idea of it, I mean who doesn’t? Still the wear of staying polished with how I’m presented and how my music was presented took a huge toll on me mentally. I started to hate music, the thing I loved the most! When I would listen to immaculate recordings with my friends their praise over the quality of the art as opposed to the art itself made me feel really sad for music as a medium in general.” So to try and inject some spontaneity back into his work and try and create something that focuses on the “art itself,” last weekend he locked himself in his room with a 4-track and began to record. As a result, it’s a very personal piece that synthesises his feelings about music right now: “I’m not gonna lie, this album is hard to listen to, but it was even harder for me to share. I love pop music, I love outsider music, and I love lo-fi music, this is my way of combining all 3.” Shamir might still be feeling a bit “hopeless” about his love for music, but there’s some light at the end of the tunnel, and he’s hinted at even more releases in the pipeline: “Enjoy! Love Yall! Still more 2 come!!!!!!!” No amount of exclamation marks will hold back the amount of excitement and anticipation that generates! Listen to ‘Hope’ in full and see the tracklisting below, and if you want to download it, it’s free in the description here.