Mura Masa aims to have fun with his new album ‘demon time’

Alexander Crossan, more commonly known as Mura Masa, is a UK songwriter and music producer who released his self-titled debut album in 2017. This album included popular songs such as ‘Love$ick’ ft A$AP Rocky, ‘Firefly’ ft Nao and ‘What if I Go?’ ft Bonzai. Mura Masa is known for blending multiple musical genres together and adding a variety of instruments and digital sound effects throughout his tracks. 

‘demon time’ is Mura Masa’s third studio album and has many artists featured, including a recurring collaboration with slowthai on the track ‘up all week’. Alex claims it is a “soundtrack for coming out of lockdown and to be together again and to get up to no good, stay up way later than you should and maybe make a few mistakes along the way” in this YouTube interview. The album being titled ‘demon time’ fits this notion perfectly and helps set the tone for listeners. 

The album contains a variety of different tracks, including ‘blessing me’ ft. Pa Salieu & Skillibeng which has hard hitting 808, tight drums, and vocal call and response throughout. It was announced as TikTok’s Summer Song of the Week on Friday the 8th of July. ‘bbycakes’ ft. Lil Uzi Vert, PinkPantheress and Shygirl is another song on the album which is an interpolation of ‘Babycakes’ by 3 Of A Kind and has UK Garage roots. It feels like it was made with the intention of being shortened to be put on social media such as TikTok. ‘demon time’ ft. Bayli is an interpolation of 50 Cent’s classic ‘In Da Club’, with a modern take and added musical elements and digital sound effects throughout. 

The song ‘e-motions’ ft. Erika de Casier feels nostalgic whilst ‘hollaback bitch’ ft. Shygirl and Channel Tres features an old school ringtone and strong bassline. ‘2gether’ was the first single that Mura Masa released for the album last year. ‘slomo’ ft Thoji and Midas the Jagaban is upbeat and feels hyper-pop. ‘prada (i like it)’ ft. LEILAH is a track on the album that has sound effects and a strong drum beat at the core of it. 

The album cover was made by London based photographer Lillie Eiger who has shot for many artists including Arlo Parks. The visuals for the album were inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog and in an interview with Consequence Mura Masa said “There was an image of Sonic the Hedgehog that I had remembered seeing years ago…He’s got this circular look, his shoes are kind of bending around, and his hair is crazy. There was this idea of distortion — that’s why it’s such a wide-angle lens that we used for the photo of me, in a kind of extra-liminal space, it’s kind of dreamscape-y.” It feels modern and a bit edgy, which lends itself to the new music and the creative direction that Mura Masa was going for. 

‘demon time’ slightly interweaves with his earlier music but with a more experimental take and having a Gen Z audience in mind; it is a far cry from Mura Masa’s 2020 album ‘R.Y.C’ which was more Brit Punk focused. It will be interesting to see how his music evolves in later projects but for now, let’s explore and enjoy ‘demon time’. 

 

Emily Bundock

@emsweirdworld

Image: ‘demon time’ Official Album Cover