Jayda G is set to return with her album, Guy.

Guy brings Jayda’s own voice and words more prominently into focus than ever before, across 13 tracks that draw on her house, disco, R&B, and soul roots while emphasising her pop song-writing sensibilities. She produced it with Jack Peñate, who has previously worked with the likes of SAULT, David Byrne, and Adele, with contributions from Lisa-Kaindé Diaz (of Ibeyi) and Ed Thomas.

The album is interspersed with archival recordings of her late father, William Richard Guy. Those recordings, made shortly before he passed away when Jayda was just 10 years old, form the bedrock of the album’s narrative, capturing a small snapshot of the American experience, told through the eyes of a young African American man.

Through a combination of direct quotes and Jayda’s lyrics, she paints a picture of his life: growing up in a rough Kansas neighborhood and his various interactions with neighborhood bullies, the police, and local authorities (“Scars,” “Circle Back Around”); from being married and enlisted in the Vietnam War by the age of 18 and returning to find his wife with another man (“Heads Or Tails,” “Lonely Back In O”); moving to Washington DC where he had a side-hustle as a nighttime radio DJ only to be inadvertently caught up in the 1968 race riots (“Blue Lights”); and finally his new life in Canada where he married Jayda’s mother and sought to better not just his own life but those of his children and community too (“Meant To Be”).

The album also pays tribute to Jayda’s Grandmother, and the resilience of and strength of Black women (“When She Dance”), and examines not just the grief of her father’s passing (“15 Foot”) but also what researching his life and listening to these tapes posthumously has meant to Jayda (“Your Thoughts,” “Sapphires Of Gold”).

“I wanted the album to be a blend of storytelling, about the African American experience, death, grief, and understanding,” explains Jayda. “It’s about my dad and his story, and naturally in part my story, too, but it’s also about so many people who wanted more for themselves and went on a search to find that. This album is just so much for people who have been oppressed and who have not had easy lives.”

Guy is Jayda’s second album, following Significant Changes on Ninja Tune in 2019.

Tracklisting

01. Intro
02. Blue Lights
03. Heads Or Tails
04. Scars
05. Interlude: I Got Tired Of Running
06. Lonely Back In O
07. Your Thoughts
08. Interlude: It Was Beautiful
09. Meant To Be
10. Circle Back Around
11. When She Dance
12. Sapphires Of Gold
13. 15 Foot

Guy LP is scheduled for June 9 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Circle Back Around” in full below and pre-order here.