New World Rhythm, the fifth album from singer-songwriter Kevin Andrew Prchal, marks a creative departure for the Chicagoland musician. Facing the turmoil of the present - political, ecological, technological - Prchal broadens his musical horizons, traversing new sonic territory in pursuit of a sound to fit these uncertain times. The result is his most inspired album to date, a lushly produced, musically imaginative, and lyrically mature achievement that breaks new artistic ground while also remaining true to Prchal’s folk rock origins.
Production on New World Rhythm began during the pandemic and was recorded remotely in collaboration with musicians from around the country and the help of producers Calvero, Dan Duszynski, Van Isaacson, and John Morton. In contrast to past albums like Unknowing and Love & Summer, New World Rhythm dials up the synths and drum machines while moving the banjos, fiddles, and acoustic guitars for which Prchal is better known to the background. The album finds inspiration in new musical sources - worldbeat, dance pop, New Wave - channeling at various times the guitar work and vocal effects of Tango In The Night-era Fleetwood Mac, the propulsive energy and explosive drum beats of Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, and the complex polyrhythms of Paul Simon’s Rhythm of the Saints. Never derivative, New World Rhythm instead weaves these novel influences together into a rich tapestry that preserves Prchal’s unique musical signature.
Thematically, New World Rhythm looks both inward and outward, glorying in the joys of family life while also documenting Prchal’s growing unease with the world outside his door. “Don’t Blush,” a buoyantly lighthearted track halfway through the album, celebrates the purity of his children’s relationship to the things they love in a hardened world. “Yeah, the world is spinning out of control / Light it up and make it beautiful,” he sings. “If you feel it, baby feel it, don’t blush.” Prchal reflects on his own responses to a world spinning out of control in tracks like “To the Sparrow,” which explores the solace he finds in nature, and “Dreamland,” which interrogates the desire to escape into the fantasy worlds offered by streaming TV and other contemporary distractions. “Damn, why do I live in all these illusions?” he asks. “A lifetime goes by when we all look away from here.”
Throughout the album, Prchal celebrates those who are rising up, in small and big ways, to actively fight for a better world. The album’s title track, an unforgettably catchy and rhythmically complex anthem, is inspired by climate activists organizing to save our planet amid the worsening ecological crisis. “We’re living a static / Hallucinogenic horror show,” Prchal sings. “But I feel it / Like lightning running through my veins. / Gotta see it to believe it, / How they rise up like a tidal wave.” Here and elsewhere, Prchal deploys the same naturalistic imagery that permeates his previous work, deftly balancing elemental forces within the space of a verse both to praise and inspire change.
Indeed, New World Rhythm doesn’t just applaud those fighting for a better future - the album also finds Prchal pondering his own contributions to the struggle. “I see the light dimming on the horizon / I see the long road behind me unwind,” he sings in the album’s opening track, “But here we are the world is turning, / Everybody here is hurting, / So I reach out and answer to my heartbeat.” Confronting a society out of sync with itself, Prchal’s newest album conjures moments of beauty from the darkness, finding order in the chaos and rhythm in the steps of those who lead the way.
New World Rhythm will be released on Friday, June 6 to all streaming platforms. Prchal will celebrate with a record release show at Evanston SPACE on Sunday, June 8 in support of his friend and longtime collaborator Jess Robbins and her band Course, who will also be hosting their record release show.