The Hours: Night Cautious Clay

• 1 Shoulders (9pm) 02:59
• 2 5th Floor (10pm) 02:56
• 3 Fade Blue (11pm) 02:39
• 4 The Deep End (12am) 02:07
• 5 New Rochelle (1am) 02:31
• 6 Art Museum (2am) 02:10
• 7 Alchemy (3am) 02:40
• 8 Flip a Coin (4am) 02:21
• Total Runtime 20:23

Info for The Hours: Night

Continuing on from his May album The Hours: Morning, Cautious Clay has announced his forth studio album: The Hours: Night. The Hours: Night is a contrast to the warmth of The Hours: Morning with a focus on the meditative and unknown nature of the night.

It’s a brand new day for Cautious Clay, and he’s taking it head on. The singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist also known as Joshua Karpeh hits a galvanizing stride that unfolds hour-by-hour on his newest project, The Hours: Morning, a conceptual endeavor that’s equal parts mixtape and emotive timetable. After moving to Philadelphia following the release of his last album — the jazzy and autobiographical KARPEH — time spent in Brooklyn, the city where Cautious Clay bloomed into the project it is today, became much more precious and ritual became a necessity. Pushing the limits of a freeform existence that once felt natural, Karpeh began to build a schedule that prioritized time outside of the studio in which he’s spent most of the past decade. The new confines provided infrastructure for focused creativity, and soon enough, he had netted over 60 songs over the course of a year.

“Every hour of the day has a distinct feeling to me. With this eight-song project, I wanted to reflect on what the morning feels like to me, so I made what felt like 8 discrete hours of the day,” explains Clay. “Some of the hours feel calm, and some of the hours have more energy, but I wanted them to play off of each other based on different experiences I’ve had during those times of day.”

He adds, “The particular color of amber used for the album artwork also felt like it encapsulates both the calm early morning and the energy/warmth of the rising sun.”

“’The Hours: Night; is the pure juxtaposition to the morning (clearly). I wanted the music to feel emblematic of how it feels to be out at night with a bunch of loose plans, but very few expectations.” (Cautious Clay)

Of this batch, the eight that appear on The Hours: Morning were selected on the basis of which Karpeh associates with each waking hour. Lead single “No Champagne” radiates with the warmth of sunrise beaming through the window, casting light on hard truths in a relationship: “Whether it’s morning or night, I see the waves taking their shape when your skin hits the light, I get a feeling I can’t shake” he emotes on the song. “It was keeping me awake till six in the morning.” Vacillating from bleary-eyed to bombastic, The Hours: Morning interprets daybreak as something more conversational than intensely personal. Armed with a certain pop precision that he’s honed over the past decade, it’s a project that further illuminates Karpeh as an artist whose strength lies in his dexterity.

Cautious Clay

Cautious Clay
Since 2017, Cautious Clay has been steadily building a devoted fanbase with his heartfelt songwriting and a unique sound that moves fluidly between pop, alternative R&B, and indie rock. He began receiving wide recognition with the 2018 release of Blood Type featuring the breakthrough single “Cold War,” a naked call for emotional honesty and transparency that resonated deeply with listeners and has since been streamed more than 150 million times. The song was featured on Issa Rae’s hit HBO TV show, Insecure, and Olivia Wilde’s movie, Booksmart, and was interpolated by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff on “London Boy” from the pop star’s album Lover. Cautious’ other outside writing and production credits include working with Billie Eilish, John Mayer, John Legend, Khalid, Kavinsky, Melanie Martinez, Remi Wolf, and more. Following two more EPs—Resonance and Table of Context—Cautious released his debut full-length, Deadpan Love in 2021, delivering on his early promise with an album that centered on the balance between oneself and others. With his Blue Note debut KARPEH, Cautious Clay offers an even more intimate glimpse inside his highly biographical artistic vision.

“Ever since I started playing music, it was always about the feel,” says Josh Karpeh, AKA Cautious Clay. “There are a lot of things in art that you can learn by practicing or studying, but feel’s not one of them. It’s something you’ve just got to have.”

It’s that feel, that deep emotional intuition that fuels Cautious Clay’s sound. Blending R&B, hip-hop, and experimental indie, his productions are dark and engrossing, built upon a unique combination of organic instruments, digital programming, and soulful vocals. He writes with unflinching honesty, engaging in deeply personal self-reflection with boldly vulnerable and vividly poetic lyrics. At times recalling contemporaries like James Blake or Sampha, Cautious is a profoundly modern songwriter and a forward- thinking producer, but he’s also steeped in the past, quick to cite Burt Bacharach as an idol and credit Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones as ever-present influences in his artful arrangements.

“I used to think about songwriting and production as completely separate,” he explains, “but when I learned how to merge those two things, that’s when I was able to start creating music that really connected with people.”

Originally from Cleveland, OH, Cautious began his artistic journey at the age of seven when he picked up classical flute. His studies led him deep into the worlds of blues and jazz, and by the time he hit college in Washington, D.C., he’d added a number of other instruments to his repertoire in addition to songwriting and production. Now based in Brooklyn, Cautious is consistently working on music for both his own project and for others.

This album contains no booklet.