GRAMMY-Winning singer, songwriter & Rap legend Everlast announces 1st album in 8 years Embers to Ashes
Out August 28 on Martyr Inc Records in partnership with Thirty Tigers & Regime Music Group
Tristan Eaton cover art & new single ‘My Hollywood‘ out now
GRAMMY-winning Irish-American rapper, singer & songwriter Everlast officially announced Embers to Ashes, his first album in eight years out August 28 on his own Martyr Inc Records, in partnership with Thirty Tigers and Regime Music Group (more via Variety, Billboard & SPIN). Produced by Yelawolf, mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, and with cover art by award-winning Tristan Eaton, the Americana and bluesy roots-rock album tells tales of glory grasped and lost, the sudden swerves that change a life’s trajectory, and hard-earned wisdom and warnings.
Also out now is second single “My Hollywood”, a lighter hearted take on the ups and downs of success in the entertainment world, following the first single and music video for “Stones”, a journey from self loathing to self healing and forgiveness (“soulful and heartfelt” – VICE, “a masterclass in the genre-bending style Everlast pioneered” – BroBible).
There are two mantras Everlast keeps close: whatever’s happening is inevitable, and this too shall pass. The philosophy comes into focus on Embers to Ashes, shaped by a decade that saw his Los Angeles home burn down in the 2018 Woolsey fire, the pandemic, a divorce and more.
But the seed was planted a decade before. In 2015, Everlast was in Berlin with plans to head to Paris for Eagles of Death Metal at Le Bataclan, and ended up staying to catch Yelawolf instead. That night, Yelawolf told him he’d love to produce a record for him, just as news started coming through that something bad had happened in Paris. Ten years later, they connected in Nashville to make Embers to Ashes, with Yelawolf producing – encouraging him to bring in co-writers like David Ray (Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims).
Maybe it’s hard to understand how the guy who recorded one of the biggest breakout hip-hop hits in history (1992’s “Jump Around” with his old group House of Pain) as well as the enduring empathy anthem of the 20th century (1998’s “What It’s Like”) could go from Armand de Brignac to Canadian Club (“We went from champagne and crystal glasses to drinking cheap whiskey out of plastic,” he growls on “Stones”). After all, this is the same man who won a GRAMMY with Santana and went on to redefine rap’s relationship with blues and rock. But here’s the thing: this too shall pass.
This immediacy rings true in the sound and feel of Embers to Ashes. In Everlast’s own words, “the album is a collection of songs that revolve around my last decade, not necessarily autobiographical but ‘inspired by’ the chaos, losses and a few wins.”
Songs like the pensive “Losing Man’s Game,” the bittersweet “Love Don’t Heal,” and even the bouncy “Broken Heart for Hire” find him confronting the phases of heartbreak, from hurt to rage to numbness. Narrative pieces like the murder ballad “Never Coming Home” and the thoughtful “Happy You Can Cry” — a reflection on the meaning of freedom through the life of a woman down on her luck — fit comfortably in the tradition of honest, Springsteenian glimpses at American life. And, of course, Everlast’s story enters into fray, too. On “1987,” he recalls a simpler time of hanging out on the west side of the valley, right before he made a record with Ice T and — ultimately — endures through life’s deepest lows on “Embers to Ashes.”
The wider world, with all its own hurt, looms throughout the record as well. On the ghostly protest song “Rubber Bullets,” written as Everlast watched the fallout of George Floyd’s murder, he reminds listeners: “Rubber bullets kill exactly like the real ones.” A warm backyard bonfire singalong provides the us-against-the-world atmosphere for “Lies.” The incendiary “Peace of Mind” mixes down-home blues and epic rock as Everlast takes aim at the absurdity of modern life and escapism. And to close things down, the hopeful “Young Man” offers up the clearest of that aforementioned hard-earned wisdom, as Everlast assumes the role of elder, imparting what he’s learned during a life truly lived to those — like his two daughters — who are just setting out.
This practice of doing the work to see the whole picture and accepting what he finds, warts and all, is the secret sauce that makes Everlast’s entire catalog so compelling. With Embers to Ashes — a collection of typically unflinching and moving music from a master of the medium — he renders our universal experiences, loss, struggle, hope, growth, in a way that gets to the heart of it all.
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