Sole has had a long career and varied career, one that in the past couple of years has seen him move to Maine, have kids, and focus on farming, along with working on his podcast. This would be enough to keep a lot of people occupied and put the music on the back burner, but not Sole. Just last fall, we got a third full length album from him and DJ Pain 1, No God Nor Country. Now he’s come back with a slightly different sort of project, and EP called Worlds Not Yet Gone.

Sole has given us a lot of different projects over the years, but Worlds Not Yet Gone is certainly a different approach than anything else in his career. In his own words, this EP is “A collection of short story science fiction rap songs,” which is a pretty clear and concise description of what’s happening here. He’s handling the production himself, so musically it’s more in conversation with recent projects like Destituent or Let Them Eat Sand. If you’re not familiar, what this means is a blend of New Wave/Synth Pop with the darker underground hip hop sounds that he came up on. The result is an interesting balance between light and dark tones, which fits the lyrics perfectly. That’s because the story that unfolds over the course of these songs is a near future in which the wealthy ruling class of this planet leave to start anew on another planet, leaving the poor working class behind. I won’t spoil it for potential listeners, but like any good sci fi, Worlds Not Yet Gone is clearly applicable to our current situation, and it has plenty of food for though to chew on about taking action, building community, and not waiting on others to fix things for you. This narrative approach to the music works really well for Sole, as he lays out this really interesting story line that allows him to discuss a lot of the issues that are usually at the forefront of his music, but from a bit of a different angle.

On paper, this might look like a filler release, but Worlds Not Yet Gone is pretty damn inspired. The change in approach works really well, inspiring Sole to be really focused over the course of five songs, making sure the narrative and message line up as everything unfolds.