John Carroll Kirby announces new album, shares “Oropendola”

John Carroll Kirby has announced details of a new solo album Blowout, due out on June 30 via Stones Throw, and shared the lead single. Scroll down to listen to “Oropendola” now.

Blowout was inspired by a period Kirby spent in Costa Rica in 2021. While in Puerto Viejo he worked with the Kawe Calypso Band and played Bob Marley covers in local bars. He wrote the album while situated in the Central American country before returning home to Los Angeles to finish it at 64 Sound Studios.

Speaking about the title of the new single, Kirby says: “The oropendola is a very cool bird that lives in a sac-like hanging nest. There was a tree full of them outside where I stayed that woke me up every morning at 5am, so I had to write a song about them.”

Blowout is Kirby’s follow-up to last year’s Dance Ancestral. He regularly works with other artists and is a credited writer on Steve Lacy‘s hit single “Bad Habit,” as well as contributing to recent albums from Eddie Chacon and Yves Tumor as well as having worked with Solange, Frank Ocean, and Harry Styles in the past.

1. Oropendola
2. Mates
3. The Takedown
4. Hotel Jonny Chingas
5. Vertigo
6. So So So
7. Sun Go Down
8. Gecko Sound
9. Flying Cat
10. Mates (Dub)
11. So So So (Dub)
12. Hotel Jonny Chingas (Dub)