by Layton Guyton
Please Have a Seat takes the listener on a carnival ride, drag race, sunset bike ride, jet-ski race and party bus with no intermission. Chicago’s NNAMDÏ continues to refine his cross-genre anything-goes style with an assured album that features some of his most vulnerable work so far. This album comes after a relatively quiet year, by his standards. NNAMDÏ has been hustling over the past two years, releasing an album, Brat, a punk EP, Black Plight, and a wild instrumental tape Krazy Karl, among several other projects. The time and space that he gave this album clearly comes through the music; the collection of songs has an intentionality to it that is impossible to miss.
NNAMDÏ is an artist who’s used to bouncing between genres and voices frequently, from sincere to slapstick, trap to midwestern emo. As a virtuoso musician that can pull off so many styles, his projects are jammed full of different sonic ideas, never staying in one mode for long and Please Have a Seat is no different. The opening run of songs is a grab bag of hooks with a variety of styles, all of which NNAMDÏ nails.
The cinematic “Ready to Run” swells beautifully into “Armoire” where Nnamdi nimbly spits over 808s and triplet hi-hats. “Dibs” is a seemingly straightforward, catchy pop song but just when it seems to settle into a groove it veers into hardcore territory for a few seconds. By the time the auto-tuned nursery-rhyme type beat “Grounded” hits, there’s no more surprises: the listener is completely in NNAMDÏ-land, having a blast. The album continues its hot streak with the tongue-in-cheek “I Don’t Really Wanna Be Famous” and hype track sing-along “Dedication”. NNAMDÏ cracks jokes and even throws on a short skit (Slyfly McCartney hops on the end of “Dedication” to do an ad for “Sooper Elite Furniture”) but none of this undermines the more sincere moments. They serve to make the album feel even more vulnerable: NNAMDÏ jokes around with you and then confesses his insecurities.
“Lifted,” is a pause for breath towards the end of the album: a gorgeous and sparse track with swelling strings and simple acoustic guitar. The track closes with the anthemic line “I work too hard for regrets,” a poignant moment of self-recognition. NNAMDÏ is a pillar of the Chicago music scene and an incredibly hard working artist. Whether it be co-running the label Sooper Records, playing in countless other Chicago artists’ bands, or playing every instrument on his own releases, he is consistently everywhere at once. It’s special to hear him sing so honestly about work and accomplishment, especially relating to the world of independent music, where that so often seems taboo. The simplicity of the credits on Please Have a Seat speak for themselves: “Everything by NNAMDÏ.”
NNAMDÏ released a statement along with Please Have a Seat asking people to listen to it all the way through, continuously, taking in his songs as a collective body of work. The album is impossible to be distracted from or to turn off, regardless. Listeners should follow the request in the title and get comfortable.