Bartees Strange

“Tie me up.”

This is the ultimatum that closes “Mustang,” a fiery post-punk synth-rock sprint and the second track on Live Forever, the full-length debut record from D.C.-based musician and singer Bartees Strange. The dare—”Tie me up”—ties back to the title of the song, and the place Strange grew up: Mustang, Oklahoma, an overwhelmingly white and racist sundown town on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. In Mustang, he says, “I didn’t let myself be seen. I held myself down so I could make people feel more comfortable around me.” On his new record, Strange has ground that former conviction to dust, and replaced it with a new one: “‘Just tie me up.’ I’d rather die than not be myself again.”

Live Forever is a direct and stunning result of this conviction. It’s impossible to divorce the reality of Strange’s personal trajectory from the intricate and idiosyncratic 13-track saga on record: it spans gentle, Moses Sumney-meets-Yves Jarvis minimalism, Killers-ish indie rock vigor with post-punk cracks in its danceable veneer, the throbbing industrial alt-soul of Algiers, Justin Vernon’s acoustic tenderness, and the volatile, unforgiving production and delivery of Death Grips. Simply put, it is a combination that none but Strange could execute under—and as a result of—precise circumstances.

Strange recorded in a barn studio in Wassaic, New York with a handful of close friends and collaborators. He was used to backing up other projects, toeing a line set by others, but this time, he set the pace. The tracks reflect their creator: plural, shifting, honest, and raw.

Leaving Mustang was about learning to live with it. “I realized that the thing I was trying to run away from—Oklahoma, Mustang, my upbringing—was actually the thing that’s separated me, and made my music worth making,” Strange says. It is an unfinished process (“I’m still grappling with trusting myself enough to keep it together,” he says), but with Live Forever, he has cemented his place as a visionary musician, a vital storyteller, and an artist who refuses to mute his lived experience.