Major Player

In 2012, Syracuse artist Jeffrey York began writing songs for what would become the first record from his solo act, Major Player. “Extended Play”—a moody, lushly produced study in vintage keyboard sounds, samples, and downtempo drums—was released in 2016. Major Player’s debut took York and a rotating cast of support musicians on tour, and then back into the studio with producer and co-writer Andrew Greacen for an ambitious follow-up LP called “Upset City”.

“Upset City”, forthcoming in 2020, sees York and Greacen develop the Major Player sound into a sunnier, alt-R&B-adjacent strain of music York likes to call “satin funk”—at once beholden to the cool of his trip-hop roots and the glitzy sheen of nu-disco and dance-pop. Lyrically, “Upset City” is a big-picture glance at current challenges faced by everyday Americans in the time of what York calls a “communication crisis”. The songs explore the mutation of the American dream at the hands of the internet; the backwards impact of social media on interpersonal relationships; the isolating effects of hyper-partisan rhetoric and fringe ideas; and how our overexposure to information often leads to our knowing less—all while the band’s uptempo throwback grooves work to reimagine a modern What’s Going On.