Skip to content
Premieres

Starchild & the New Romantic Channels Prince on Diaphanous ‘Crucial’ EP

Bryndon Cook has quite the résumé. He’s been a touring guitarist for acts like Solange, Chairlift, and Blood Orange, and now he’s launching Starchild & The New Romantic. The Brooklyn-based musician will be releasing the project’s debut EP, Crucial, on March 18 via Ghostly.

The eight-track effort employs familiar R&B methods and melodies while layering electronic textures on top, bringing to mind some of Cook’s fondest influences. In the style of his personal lodestar, Prince, Cook performed and recorded Crucial entirely on his own, which draws its name from his teenage slang. Cook explains, “Anything that was amazing was either ‘vicious’ or ‘crucial’ back then.” Of the EP, Cook says:

I could compare [the songs] to diary entries from the end of my teenage years, where I’m trying to reconcile heartbreak and rejection with escapism. Entering this new world experience and flying into a foreign land.

Listen to Crucial here and find the track list below.

Crucial track list:
1. “All My Lovers”
2. “Slammin’ Mannequin”
3. “Relax”
4. “Love Interlude”
5. “Stacy”
6. “Woman’s Dress”
7. “New Romantic”
8. “Crucial”