Photos by Evan Brown (@actuallyondirt)

UPDATE: YOU CAN NOW STREAM THE ALBUM BELOW

Saba’s brand new album will be with us tomorrow (or tonight for the nite owls) but I got a chance to listen to it a few days ago at a private listening session. It goes without saying that the album is crazy, but check out my thoughts on a few selected joint as well as the expirience itself after the jump. Then be back here after midnight to listen to Care For Me.

A year and a half after the release of his excellent debut Bucket List Project, Saba holds a private listening party for his new album at a generously-sized storefront space located in Chicago’s Noble Square neighborhood. The spot is in a bit of a nook of an area, located on Milwaukee, away from the more crowded Wicker Park and not quite at what is more generally considered West Town. In fact, it’s only a few blocks from the Young Chicago Authors headquarters, a space where Saba and the rest of PIVOT Gang got their start at artists in the city, along with a who’s who of current Chicago marquee names. A few of them populate tonight’s event, but mostly this feels like something for family. It’s warmer than it’s been for the last couple weeks or so, and maybe that’s got everyone in high spirits.

The catch to tonight’s listening event is that none of the music will be played over the speakers. I can’t tell if the guests were already aware of this (I was not) before Saba’s team moves through the room handing out identical pairs of noise-cancelling headphones. They’ve got them lined up along their arms, like living merchandise racks. The squad is made up of his two managers as well as several volunteers, his friends. These include his girlfriend, people from the YCA days as well as music colleagues. Everyone seems genuinely happy to help. As someone new enters the room, a team member will greet them enthusiastically, as it’s almost always a good friend, and go off the grab them headphones if they’ve run out of the ones on display. They’re all having fun celebrating the night, yet ready to make any adjustments on the fly or see to any issue someone’s having at the entrance, or to make sure Saba is alright.

The entire time, Saba’s been working the room, but not in the way I’ve typically seen artists do at these things. He’s not hopping from person to person, kindly thanking them for “Congrats, g”s or moving around for people to snap pictures with him. He’s having real conversations with friends and colleagues. He’s catching up with people, he’s joking around with his team and family amidst shaking up with people passing by. Then, the time gets pointed out, and he slips away to an upstairs area with a control booth for the evening’s audio. He addresses the crowd, thanks them for coming, and wastes no time in introducing Care For Me.

The first song on the album is “Busy/Sirens”, the first part of which acted as the first single. The familiarity with the track actually makes everyone more ready to nod their heads with the headphones. We’re simultaneously listening to music alone and as a group. I notice myself immediately grinning and catch a few people around the room doing the same thing. I’m sure that it would look funny to someone entering the room without the headphones; an entire room moving in unison to what must sound like the faintest tune that can’t be traced the exact speaker it’s playing from.

The beauty of the silent listening experience is that everyone is present. Nobody is talking over the music, nobody is missing anything. I don’t even see many people on their phones, aside from a few Instagram story posts being made. The crowd’s body language shifts with the album. “Busy” was a properly bouncy opening, but moving into a track like “Fighters”, where Saba recounts stories of neighborhood scraps, yields more of a group sway. Primary producers daedaePIVOT and Dauod do wonders to add to Saba’s sound on this project, which up until recently he mostly handled himself.

“Fighter” is a good example of a storytelling skill that Sab’s always excelled at but he takes into overdrive on this release. Rather than just telling full stories from his life, he’s able to bring up anecdotes, the little daily occurrences that make everything feel real. Besides the neighborhood fight recounted, the track also mentions arguing with his girl and the terribly male tendency to talk over her in arguments. It’s an interesting thing that he takes note of. Saba’s official and unofficial team is made up mostly of women of color, including one of his managers, Cristela. Amidst an album largely about loneliness and grief leading to dark places, Saba takes the time to highlight how sometimes it can just be letting those we love down, or not showing them that love properly, that can lead to guilt. It’s a specific kind of offense that not many men, let alone artists, can readily admit to. I can’t help but think that the women he surrounds himself with play a part in this self-awareness.

Of course, the room is mostly silent for the duration of the event. The sound of being around someone with their headphones up too loud, but multiplied by a few dozen times is still there, but it’s quiet. This silence gets double downed on when a track called “Prom/King” comes on. It recounts the beginnings of Saba becoming close with his cousin Walter as teenagers after not having much contact for several years. Walt, a fellow Chicago artist, also in PIVOT Gang, was tragically killed a little over a year ago. It’s a somber moment as the room hears a story that’s at times funny and at times touching about someone they all knew at least, were extremely close with at most. It’s a good story, about Walt impromptu-ly and aggressively finding his cousin a prom date, and the two realizing they lived merely blocks away from each other their entire lives. I had heard it before, when Saba told it at Walt’s memorial service at YCA. It was difficult to hear then too, because having grown up with my own cousins on the next block down, it was hard not to put myself in the story, and in the shoes of someone that’s lost them. Although he sounds more collected on wax, Saba loses no emotion, no hurt in retelling those moments with Walt, and the room, many of whom were at the memorial, feels it. A woman I recognize as Walter’s mother steps out at the song’s close. A young girl, clearly family, goes to Saba for a hug. A collective breath is let out as the next track starts. This moment simply wouldn’t have been possible blasting the music over a set of speakers.

When the last song ends, it takes a second to realize that was it. We’ve all been standing in the same places for 41 and half minutes, and could have easily lasted another 10 or so. I couldn’t figure out exactly why I was smiling at the start of the album, but then I realize it. Everyone is legitimately excited. This feels like something we can all be proud of. Not just if you happen to be from the same block as Saba, if you’ve heard him make reference to the same liquor store you got your favorite snacks and knew the owner at. And not even just because most present were close personal friends. Everything from Chicago feels like a product of the entire city and this was an especially homegrown moment. The album isn’t “about” Walter’s death, but it, and the commonness of occurrences like it in Chicago, are undeniably in its DNA. On recounting an earlier near-death experience his cousin had suffered, Saba states “Sometimes I fucking hate Chicago because I hate this feeling”.

Many people stay for almost an hour after the music stops playing. It’s a time for celebration. Saba and crew will be heading off on tour in a couple weeks, and 5 days from now the thing that we just heard will be released into the world. Group pictures get taken. Jokes get made on each other. Some people are dancing to a Spice Girls song. It seems like at every second a few people scattered around are laughing. Saba has become a bit more lively, posing with his managers and his girlfriend. It’s almost like we were invited over and got showed music in the middle of hanging out. The album is by no means happy but everyone is even more happy to interact now. Isolation is a huge theme of Care For Me as well as the promo and rollout, but this moment feels like a break from that. It’s a bunch of friends enjoying a quiet moment, like they know how rare they’re starting to get.