the only way is thr(u)

“the only way is thr(u)” lights a candle to the courage it takes to make oneself k(new). Written over 5 years between New York City and her hometown in Newark, Delaware, ọmọlolú's debut album explores the process of recovery from systems, spaces, and ways of being that no longer serve one, and works through how to excavate and affirm a sense of self rooted in trust and belief. The album thinks about recovery as a continual process of finding yourself again and again. “SHATTER ME,” the second single, samples prolific poet Audre Lorde’s, “A Litany for Survival” and is anchored by a refrain of the poem’s poignant line, “seeking a now that can breed futures.” This refrain shines as the album’s north star, concerned with exploring how we break open portals of possibility that bring us in touch with more liberating realities/senses of self and reject western, colonial conceptions of time/space/self that trap one in a linear/(or non-existent) sense of becoming. ọmọlolú shares that,

“the only way is thr(u) embraces Black, queer senses of space/time that hold the past, present, and future in active relationship to each other. My debut album taps into a tensed relationality of being: I/we have existed, I/we exist, I/we will continue to exist, holding the presence of ancestors, and the breath that flows within us now, as proof of Black queer futures, presence, befores, and coming afters.”

“the only way is thr(u)” takes you on a redemptive journey filled with lush harmony, field recordings of creek life and nature, lulling guitar, samples of Black Feminist Ancestors, rhythmic breaks, and mantra-informed prose. ọmọlolú shares,

“In the album’s songs, repetition is used as a grounding tool to re-route one's system by asserting new, more affirming beliefs of self and what is possible that one is coming into. Harmonies resound a call to collective power and echo the ancestral and communal support that is available in moments of transformation and alchemization.”

“the only way is thr(u)” is a soothing balm in rupturing times meant to attune one to the depths of their unique possibility that, when reverberated out, connects one to the collective force of what can be done (and undone).

✨ Thank you to sonic powerhouse canteenkilla who co-produced multiple tracks on the album.