Earlier this month Swedish singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry returned with her first new single in four years. As a followup to “Kong,” Cherry now delivers yet another new tune with “Shotgun Shack.”
On the Four Tet-produced track, Neneh addresses the link between violence and deprivation, as a “shotgun shack” or “shotgun house” was the most common type of house in the Southern United States dating from the end of the Civil War to the 1920s.
“I don’t even remember who said it, but I was like, ‘Shotgun shack! That’s a cool term,'” Cherry said in reference to hearing the idiom at the funeral of late jazz great Ornette Coleman. “It’s about gun culture—the notion of war zones and the tragedies that guns bring there. The dealing of arms. Street culture. The gun is a powerful thing—dangerous, but powerful.”
In addition to the release of “Shotgun Shack,” the 54-year-old musician announces her her fifth solo album, Broken Politics, produced entirely by Four Tet. The LP, which features both “Shotgun Shack” and “Kong,” is due out October 19.
For more music, watch Tommy Genesis’ provocative new video for “100 Bad.”
