The consistently great Brooklyn-via-Maryland rapper and producer Oddisee has been a bit quiet lately; he hasn’t released an album since his underrated 2017 joint The Iceberg. Today, though, Oddisee has returned with Odd Cure, a new EP recorded under quarantine and released without warning.

Oddisee performed in Thailand just before the pandemic arrived, and he self-isolated in Brooklyn for two weeks after returning. Over that time, he recorded Odd Cure. The record has six songs, and Oddisee links the songs together with recordings of phone calls with family members. There’s a lot of live instrumentation on Odd Cure; Oddisee recorded the contributions of his band members remotely. In a press release, he calls the EP “a record I didn’t want to write but needed to.”

The sound is rich and melodic and jazz-infused, and there’s a real warmth in both the songs and the phone calls. There are very few people who can make rap records sound as friendly or as welcoming as Oddisee can. Below, check out the EP, as well as Oddisee’s video for the breezy track “No Skips.”

https://www.stereogum.com/2091852/stream-oddisees-gorgeous-surprise-new-ep-odd-cure/music/

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