Purchase on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/straight-no-chaser/id515353637

A few weeks back, billy woods celebrated the release of his latest album, History Will Absolve Me. As his first solo release in eight years, HWAM is an unapologetically dark and dense project, a collection of woods' most personal work to date that he refers to as "wholly uncompromising." And while most rappers shy away from bearing their soul, History Will Absolve Me shows that it's at woods' rawest when he's best.

"Blue Dream," the album's latest single, and the first since the release of his "Duck Hunt" video, is a perfect example of that. The song was premiered today by My Old Kentucky Blog, which hailed the track as a "claustrophobic gutcheck," an apt description for a song that, according to woods, was inspired by "the end of a long relationship, the movie Blue Valentine, and this period I went through where I seriously contemplated whether I wanted to quit smoking weed."

The beat, produced by Man Mantis, sets the mood with a hypnotic sample and reverb-heavy drums, aided along by singer L'Wren's haunting vocals on the song's chorus. woods, pulling from the concept of Blue Valentine, gives his take on a relationship, focusing only on the relationship's beginning and end. But even as things start smoothly, woods hints at issues, rapping, "I'm hoping you don't ask the wrong questions/ I really don't wanna start lying." The song takes a firm turn towards the darkness in the second verse, as woods raps, "So much unsaid/ We only keep it real when we're joking... Somewhere along the line/ We stopped trying and started going through the motions."

Stained Glass, Shattered Thoughts and Broken Syllables

http://akothechemist.bandcamp.com/album....llables