Photo credit: Aaron Cansler
Ten Modern American Work Songs LP out now on Don Giovanni Records / Anyway Records
Ten Modern American Work Songs album purchase link
Singles: “Rudy” “Quasi-Nichomachean Ethics (Drunk Uncle Advice)”
“Courtesan” “Lust For Life” “Your Local Neighborhood Bar” “Kalahari”
Korean-American artist Andrew Choi has released his fifth album as St. Lenox, Ten Modern American Work Songs to acclaim spanning NPR “New Music Friday”, NPR Into Music podcast, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, FLOOD, No Depression and more. Today, he shares the meditative album single “Kalahari“ alongside an official video. The song represents a turning point for Andrew, capturing a rare moment of blissful peace. It sees him floating down a lazy river on a trip to Sandusky, Ohio as he pauses to wonder: “Have I spent too much time working and being anxious about things that really weren’t that important?”
Released just before the U.S. Presidential election and dedicated to the NYU Law Class of 2014 on its 10th anniversary, the new collection showcases his unique brand of humor (recently toured with Paul F. Tompkins, Matt Besser and others) and political prowess while harnessing his life experience to raise questions about the definition of success and the journey through higher education and the American workforce.
Like many Millennials and Gen-Xers, Andrew grew up with the narrative that quality work and education would eventually lead to personal salvation and provide a path to upward mobility. To that end, Andrew became a pillar of achievement: flying to New York City to study violin at Julliard on weekends as a teenager, graduating magna cum laude from Princeton University, earning a PhD in philosophy in his 30s, attending law school at NYU Law and working in Manhattan at a law firm, while simultaneously grappling with the struggles of modern working life: low wages, massive student debt, and burnout. This tremendous amount of experience—and all of the observations therein—is channeled into Ten Modern American Work Songs. “I want the record to be a snapshot of work life in modern times,” he says. “I try my best in these records to provide a kind of realism. I want the listener to come away with a vivid feeling of what it’s like to work these days. Because ultimately that kind of realism is motivating to people on an ethical and political level.
Anyone who has ever paused to wonder “What’s this all for?” as they climb the next rung in capitalist America will find solace in these stories, which, taken together, paint an evocative portrait of 21st century work life.
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