''Dead Hand Control'' is the third studio album by

Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 2006 and currently signed to Columbia Records. The band was formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomso ...

bassist and American musician

Chris Baio Christopher Baio (born October 29, 1984) is an American musician, best known for being the bassist for the New York City-based indie rock band Vampire Weekend. He also releases as a record producer under the mononym Baio, and his debut solo al ...

, who goes by the mononym Baio. It was released on January 29, 2021, by

Glassnote Records Glassnote Records (also known as Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC) is a record label that was launched by American music executive Daniel Glass in 2007. The label primarily has a lineup of indie rock and alternative rock artists, most notably ...

Background

The album was recorded over an 18-month period at

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (character), 2-D (Singing, vocals, Musical keyboard, keyboards), Murd ...

vocalist

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...

's 13 Studios in London and C+C Music Factory in Los Angeles.

Release

On November 18, 2020, Baio announced the released of his third studio album, along with two singles: "Endless Me, Endlessly" and "What Do You Say When I’m Not There?" On January 15, 2021, another two singles were released: "Dead Hand Control" and "Take It From Me".

Critical reception

''Dead Hand Control'' was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

'', which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 69 based on 7 reviews.

AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are ad ...

gave the release a 6.8 out of 10 based on 7 reviews. In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

, Marcy Donelson wrote: "Unlike his previous albums, the play times on Dead Hand Control vary widely, with tracks sometimes transitioning into one another. It ultimately has the effect of a night out at the club or, more precisely, a series of 12" extended dance mixes à la the 1980s that are cued up among radio cuts." Ben Miles of '' Clash'' said "Dead Hand Control, leaves you feeling somewhat underwhelmed as you come to the end of the 42 minute run time. Perhaps the most dominating issue on this LP is that it seems to fall short of what its clear intention is. Baio has nailed his colours to the mast in terms of what he is attempting to do with this album; bringing disparate and disenchanted individuals together with tales of selflessness and an eclectic influence of genres."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

. Musicians *

− vocals, bass, guitar, piano * George Hume – guitar * Robby Sinclair – drums *

Ezra Koenig Ezra Michael Koenig ( ; born April 8, 1984) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and internet radio personality. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of indie rock band Vampire Weekend. Additio ...

– backing vocals * Greta Morgan – backing vocals * Buzzy Lee – backing vocals Production *

– engineer, producer *

Emily Lazar Emily B. Lazar is an American mastering engineer. She is the founder, president, and chief mastering engineer of The Lodge, an audio mastering facility that has operated in New York City's Greenwich Village since 1997. She won a Grammy Award fo ...

– mastering *

Lars Stalfors Lars Stalfors is an American record producer, writer and mixer based in Los Angeles. His most recent credits include Cold War Kids albums ''L.A. Divine'' (2017) and ''Hold My Home'' (2014) including the #1 alternative song "First". He has also w ...

– mixing * Jasmine Chen – engineer * Chris Kasych – engineer * John Foyle – engineer

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2021 albums Glassnote Records albums