Misery- billy woods

A few weeks ago billy woods announced a new solo LP titled GOLLIWOG, and he shared the record's 1st single, "Misery", which was produced by long time collaborator Kenny Segal. The last we heard from billy outside of his music with ELUCID as Armand Hammer was 2 years ago on his career opus, Maps, which is the 2nd collaborative record he made with Segal, so this choice as the initial preview feels appropriate despite the production credits featuring a staggering list of talent including the likes of EL-P and The Alchemist. On the short and sweet "Misery", woods tastefully depicts an affair over Segal's jazz-flecked instrumental that gets plenty of mileage out of its sparse construction. It's exactly the kind of unflashy, but intricate instrumental that's perfectly suited for billy's sensibilities.

Richly rendered minor key horns are lathered over churning bass and cymbal/snare rolls, with plenty of negative space for woods to cruise through. As usual, there's a remarkable amount of detail to unpack with billy's bars despite the short run time, with references to MF DOOM, Cinderella, Misery, and vampires seamlessly woven into what's essentially and adulterous vignette. His rapping is as technically dazzling as ever, and it remains a thrill to hear him string disparate imagery together into a cohesive patchwork with a singular point of view "Number one fan like Misery, and misery love company/And with them, she never unaccompanied/And she not goin' home in a pumpkin/If it's a tight squeeze, brodie, you the one thumbin'". Rarely are love triangles depicted with such vivid, poetic imagery.