Mobley has today released his new album titled ‘We Do Not Fear Ruins’ via Last Gang Records. The mark and tell of a good songwriter is when they have a group of songs laced together as an album, with absolutely no filler, yet a lot of diversity.

A diverse sense of self coupled with guttural feelings set to music from the heart of an artist who wears their heart on his sleeve. The soul of music is finely represented with a percussive hook-filled overflow of such originality and creative response that you can’t help but listen again and again just to find your latest favorite spot.

What I find most intriguing about ‘We Do Not Fear Ruins’ is how the sheer diversity of the music between each song fits so smoothly together. I can’t decide if it is because of the songwriting and execution or if it is just the overall style of the artist himself. I just know it fits and, even though there are 16 tracks to behold, I have no problem hitting the play button and just letting go and buckling up for the ride. If this is not on vinyl, it should be.

About Mobley

When you don’t fear ruins, “apocalypse” is another word for opportunity.

This is a central theme of Mobley’s We Do Not Fear Ruins, an exploration of the intimate, the infinite, and time itself. The genre-promiscuous, sonically expansive concept album continues the story of the character Jacob Creedmoor, first introduced in Mobley’s 2022 EP, Cry Havoc!, an ordinary man who became radicalized into a Robin Hood-esque hero in an alternate version of the early ‘80s United States.

Against a backdrop of futuristic art rock, Jacob fought fascism, pulled off daring heists, and was eventually captured by the government and imprisoned in suspended animation. We Do Not Fear Ruins is the next chapter in Mobley’s ongoing sci-fi epic. The story leaps nearly 300 years into the future, when Jacob awakens in a post-apocalyptic, post-U.S. world. Having lost everyone he’s known, he navigates grief, memory, and heartbreak through a range of sonic textures as expansive as the wastelands (or possibly afterlife) he finds himself wandering.

When deciding on the most effective sonic palette for his current project, Mobley turned to 1981, when Jacob was frozen. “When I listened to some of the songs in the air during that period, I was stunned by the incredible diversity of popular music,” he says. “You had Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, but new wave and funk were still happening. Pop and country were doing a bunch of interesting things. R&B was huge, and there were the first rumblings of hip-hop, as well as vestigial traces of disco.”

Despite the sweeping audiovisual scope of Jacob’s saga, the lyrics of We Do Not Fear Ruins remain decidedly internal: an examination of loneliness, yearning, and cautious hope – universal feelings, no matter what period we’re stuck in.

The time spent between Cry Havoc! and now saw Mobley touring coast to coast, writing a forthcoming novel that expounds on We Do Not Fear Ruins’ concept, and composing musical scores for film and stage. Mobley has produced and directed the music for an Adidas commercial during the Paris Olympics and composed the theme for Webby Award-winning SiriusXM & Smithsonian podcast All Music Is Black Music, hosted by Selema Masekela and featuring guests like Kelly Rowland, Ne-Yo, and St. Vincent.

Mobley’s songs have racked up millions of streams across Spotify and Apple Music and has landed sync placements on HBO, FOX, NBC, ESPN, and CW, seen airplay adds on Alt Nation, KROQ, KUTX, ACL Radio, and KEXP, and has received praise from outlets like Billboard, Noisey, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Consequence, American Songwriter, and beyond. He’s played festivals like ACL, Lollapalooza, and SXSW and has opened for acts like Cold War Kids, Phantogram, James Blake, WAVVES, Sylvan Esso, Matt & Kim, and more.

The present moment finds Mobley focused on the future. He says, “Living with and working through these songs and stories has been the most fulfilling challenge of my artistic life. I can’t wait to share it all and see the life it takes on when it’s no longer just mine.”



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