Struggler is the second studio album by Australian musician Genesis Owusu, released on 18 August 2023 through Ourness. The album was supported with a world tour, across North America, Europe and Australia between October and December 2023.
At the 2023 ARIA Music Awards, the album won Album of the Year, Best Independent Release and Best Hip Hop/Rap Release and was nominated for Best Produced Release, Best Engineered Release and Best Solo Artist. At the 2023 J Awards, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year. The album was nominated for the 2023 Australian Music Prize.
At the AIR Awards of 2024, the album was nominated for Independent Album of the Year and Best Independent Hip Hop Album or EP, while the album was nominated for Independent Publicity Team of the Year and Independent Marketing Team of the Year.
"Survivor" was released as a single and added to the track listing on 1 December 2023.
Content In a press statement upon announcement in May 2023, Owusu said, "The struggler runs through an absurd world with no 'where' or 'why' at hand. Just an instinctual inner rhythm, yelling at them to survive the pestilence and lightning bolts coming from above. A roach just keeps roaching."
As with Owusu's previous album, Smiling with No Teeth, Struggler has been described as incorporating elements from a wide variety of genres. Timothy Monger of AllMusic observed a "collision of experimental post-punk, rap, and R&B", while Wesley McLean of Exclaim! described the album as "amalgamating elements of post-punk, R&B, hip-hop, funk, new wave, psychedelic rock and more". Tracks such as "See Ya There" and "Tied Up!" were stylistically compared to the work of Prince.
Critical reception
Struggler received a score of 82 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on eleven critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Sophie Williams of NME considered Struggler "the work of an artist giving power to some of his most radical sonic ideas. Songs don't often build to a crescendo, they begin there" as "Owusu's stylistic choices are both unexpected and impressive, visiting all corners of his eclectic taste".
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Timothy Monger claimed that, "Owusu could have gone any number of ways on his sophomore set, but it's a testament to his artistic conviction that he chose to make something so risky and complex. Even better, he pulled it off." Shaad D'Souza of The Guardian contrasted it to Owusu's "brilliant debut" album Smiling with No Teeth as "an ill-defined retread that plays it too safe" and "comparatively mild, Owusu-Ansah seemingly riffing and stalling in hope of a grand set piece that never arrives".
Consequence ranked Struggler 37th on its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2023.
Track listing
Notes signifies a primary and vocal producer. signifies an additional producer. signifies a co-producer. signifies a vocal producer.
Personnel Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Musicians
Genesis Owusu – vocals Jason Evigan – bass (tracks 1, 5, 8, 12); guitars, drums (1, 5, 8); keyboards (1, 8), backing vocals (1), drums (8) Jeff "Gitty" Gitelman – additional backing vocals (1) Ben "Smiley" Silverstein – additional keyboards (1), keyboards (5) Mikey Freedom Hart – synthesisers, programming, guitar (2, 3); bass (2); baritone guitar, dubs (3) Psymun – bass, synthesisers, programming (2, 3) Max Freedberg – drums (2, 3) Melody English – background vocals (2) Andrew Klippel – keyboards (4, 7, 11), backing vocal arrangements (4) Michael Di Francesco – bass (4, 7, 11) Julian Sudek – drums (4, 7, 11) Jonti Danilewitz – guitar (4) Hamish Stuart – drums (4) Kye – backing vocals (4) Blush – background vocals (5) Steinj – background vocals (5) Sol Was – bass, guitar, synthesisers (6) Henry Was – programming (6) Kirin J. Callinan – guitar (7, 11) Jackson Rau – guitar (8) Valley Girl – performance (9) Pat Morrissey – programming (10) Jono Ma – synthesisers (11) Isibane Se Afrika – choir vocals (12)
Technical
Jason Evigan – engineering (1, 5, 8, 12) Mikey Freedom Hart – engineering (2, 3) David Hart – engineering (2, 3) Simon Christensen – engineering (2, 3) Simon Cohen – engineering (4, 11) Jackson Rau – engineering (5, 8) Sol Was – engineering (6) George Nicholas – engineering (7) Dave Hammer – engineering (7) Kyle Shearer – engineering (9) Nate Campany – engineering (9) Pat Morrissey – engineering (10) Kofi Owusu-Ansah – additional vocal engineering (3, 7, 11) Jess Dess – additional engineering (4) Nicolas Mendoza – engineering assistance (4) Manny Marroquin – mixing Joe LaPorta – mastering Chris Galland – mix engineering Ramiro Fernandez-Seoane – mix engineering assistance
Visuals Lisa Reihana – photography, art direction Ady Neshoda – artwork, art direction Kiran Best – artwork, art direction Kofi Owusu-Ansah – art direction
Charts + Chart performance for Struggler Chart (2023) Peakposition
References