on White Vinyl

Ten Days follows in the direction of Grammy-winning superstar producer Fred again..'s Actual Life series, incorporating audio snippets from friends, chance encounters, and other sound sources into his wistful, highly collaborative dance tracks. Short, numbered interludes, often drunken singalongs or muddled messages, alternate between proper songs, letting intimate moments set the stage for radio-friendly anthems. "adore u," a bouncy, tropical-tinged tune featuring Obongjayar that became Fred's first Top Five-charting U.K. pop hit, is placed as the album's first proper song, though other charting singles, including collaborations with Baby Keem, Lil Yachty, Overmono, and Flowdan, are left out, having been included on updated editions of the rolling compilation USB. "ten," a follow-up hit featuring Jozzy and Jim Legxacy, has a more engaging melody and more inventive production. The album gets more surprising as it continues, with SOAK delivering a moving, introspective spoken word performance on "just stand there," Anderson .Paak and CHIKA flowing over the drum'n'bass roller "places to be," and perhaps the biggest head-turner in the track listing, country legend Emmylou Harris guesting on the rustic, atmospheric "where will i be," an interpolation of the opening track from the Daniel Lanois-produced masterwork Wrecking Ball. The album's centerpiece is "glow," an effervescent, seven-minute progressive house epic co-produced by Duskus, Joy Anonymous, and Fred's frequent stage and studio partners, Four Tet and Skrillex. "backseat" (featuring the Japanese House) gives a posthumous production credit to San Francisco breakbeat pioneer Scott Hardkiss, and it channels the '90s West Coast rave sound in the context of Fred's standard style of densely produced, bittersweet dance-pop. More or less what fans would expect from a Fred again.. album at this point, Ten Days is a diaristic emotional whirlwind with a handful of highlights.