Miles Francis

"The album became about showing a man going through a complete unraveling of their conditioning, and by the time I’d finished working on it I’d started to identify as non-binary."

The debut LP from Miles Francis, <a href="spotify:album:40XLiXvp6jZrFAwtCXU7ye" data-name="Good Man">Good Man</a> is a work of paradox: a nuanced exploration of masculinity and all its trappings, presented in a sound that’s joyfully unfettered. Produced by Francis and recorded in their longtime studio, Good Man arrives as the most visionary and elaborately realized output yet from a polymathic artist known for collaborating with the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:51qUDJb5AtQX6jIL4VJx6M" data-name="Angelique Kidjo">Angelique Kidjo</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2KGF6IKZfVGCKfyqcNVGfh" data-name="Antibalas">Antibalas</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6LufpoVlIYKQCu9Gjpk8B7" data-name="Sharon Jones &amp; The Dap-Kings">Sharon Jones &amp; The Dap-Kings</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3kjuyTCjPG1WMFCiyc5IuB" data-name="Arcade Fire">Arcade Fire</a>&#39;s <a href="spotify:artist:1POwuKLQ9xhMZzIYElNtWp" data-name="Will Butler">Will Butler</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7gsslWrdzzkV3jf7cAws95" data-name="EMEFE">EMEFE</a>, among others.

In dreaming up the album’s sound, Francis embraced an experimental process that involved elegantly merging their most formative yet varied musical influences. “I grew up with boy-band posters from floor to ceiling in my bedroom, and that music dominated my life when I was young,” they point out. “Later on I studied Afrobeat music, which helped me to get to a place where I could be totally free in my musical expression - and then all of the worlds began to collide.” Also naming shapeshifters like Prince and David Bowie among their essential touchstones, Francis ultimately alchemized those inspirations into a highly percussive form of art-pop, both lavishly orchestrated and visceral in impact.