''x Infinity'', (pronounced ''Times Infinity'') is the fourth studio album by American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics o ...

artist and author

George Watsky George Virden Watsky (born September 15, 1986), better known mononymously as Watsky, is an American rapper, singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, poet, author, and illustrator. Watsky broke out as a rapper with his viral video "Pale k ...

, released on August 19, 2016. The album was recorded at Seahorse Studios in Los Angeles, Grand St. Recording in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, and Aqua Vibea in

Hadley, Massachusetts Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the Hampshire and Mountain Farms Mal ...

. The album, executive produced by

Russell Simmons Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons ...

– who Watsky previously connected with as a guest on Season 6 of Simmons' HBO series '' Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry'' – was produced by Kush Mody and features additional production from

Anderson .Paak Brandon Paak Anderson (born February 8, 1986), better known by his stage name Anderson .Paak (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and drummer. He released his debut mixtape, ''O.B.E. Vol. 1,'' in 2012 and went on to rel ...

and drumming by

Josh Dun Joshua William Dun (born June 18, 1988) is an American musician. He is best known as the drummer of the musical duo Twenty One Pilots, alongside Tyler Joseph, and also contributes backing vocals and trumpet to the band's work. He has collabor ...

Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots (stylized in all lowercase or as twenty øne piløts) are an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who b ...

, among other collaborations. Unlike Watsky's previous album, All You Can Do, which was almost entirely produced by .Paak, the album contains only one song, Midnight Heart, that features production from him.

accompanies Watsky on the drums in Track 13, ''Midnight Heart.''

Background

On Twitter, Watsky described the album's thesis statement as a message "that embracing our insignificance in the vastness of time & space frees us to be joyful." He stated in another tweet that the album was his first in 2 years.

Release

The lead single, ''Stick to Your Guns'' featuring

Julia Nunes Julia Nunes (born January 3, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter from Fairport, New York. Her career has progressed online through her videos of pop songs on YouTube, in which she sings harmony with herself and plays acoustic instruments, ...

, was released on July 1, 2016, as a free download on Watsky's

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

page. A week later, the second single, ''Tiny Glowing Screens, Pt. 3'', was released alongside the announcement of the album. An accompanying music video was released on YouTube. On August 18, 2016, the day before the album's scheduled release, lyric annotation site

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabilit ...

premiered the song ''Don't Be Nice'', along with the lyrics for the entire album. This is not the first time Watsky premiered music right before the album through Genius; a similar promotion was done for the release of '' Cardboard Castles'' and '' All You Can Do''.

Reception

x Infinity was met with positive reviews. Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

gave the album a three and a half out of five stars, adding that "Ultimately, this is his brightest, most accomplished release yet."

SputnikMusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

user RedHotRedd gave the album a similar score, saying "It seems as though Watsky really wanted ''x Infinity'' to be his best effort, and it most certainly was."

Track listing

Track listing adapted from the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, and credits from

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2016 albums George Watsky albums