Claud Six is an artist from Portland, Oregon who has been releasing music for over a decade, whether it be as a solo artist or as a member of groups like Jellyfish Brigade, BCxLD, Hives Inquiry Squad, Shut-ins and the Colony, and R4PC4MP. His most recent solo album, Pantry, came out in January of 2021. Now he’s back with a new solo effort, In Case We Shouldn’t Make It.

As you might infer from the title of this album, Claud Six wrote this music over the last two years as his attempt to process a non-stop cycle of checking the news to see something terrible and then getting messages from friends and family that essentially said, “Shit’s crazy? You good?” Who can relate? What this means in practical terms is that the music is a bit melancholier than you might be used to from a Claud Six album. It’s deeply introspective, and the production is gentle and beautiful. As you make your way through it, you can hear Six trying to maintain his grasp on his optimism, looking for the cracks where the light might get in, but it’s not always easy these days, when a global pandemic won’t end and massive protests can break out across the country but we don’t see any meaningful change. That push and pull is all over this album. No song better encapsulates this sentiment than the closing track, perfectly titled, “The Ambiguitiy of Silver Lines and Grey Skies.” On this album, Claud Six is handling both production and emcee-ing duties, making it a true solo album, minus all of the guest spots across the album. That’s because even when Claud Six is getting introspective and feeling a little down about the current state of the world, he knows that the immediate community that he’s built around himself with fellow creatives can help provide some of that silver lining. To that end, we get appearances from Jay Cobb Anderson, Bloodmoney Perez, Milc, Nibs, Old Grape God, Alex Toast, Basiq the Lyrical Painter, and Mimi Naja. It all comes together to make a really beautiful and personal album.

In Case We Shouldn’t Make It is a nice reflection of our times from Claud Six. We’ve been through a lot in the past two years, and albums like this make it just a little easier to process those emotions and also help you feel like you’re not alone in going through all of this.