Four Fists (P.O.S. & Astronautalis) 6666

Vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 debut collaborative album from P.O.S and Astronautalis. Sometimes the best way for artists to keep pushing ahead is to remember who their people are - especially when they're the ones they've known for ages and have been itching to work with from the very start. Stef Alexander and Andy Bothwell, respectively known as P.O.S and Astronautalis, have been making guest appearances on each other's records for over ten years, and date their friendship back even further. 6666 pools not just their talents but their experience to create a work that bristles with a collective tension. In other words, 6666 bangs, but in the service of something greater than entry-level defiance. There's a vibe that seems to draw from the life of The Clash's Joe Strummer, who's namechecked more than once on the album as a young punk iconoclast growing into a reflective humanist. The protests still hold weight: cops threaten even the law-abiding, hustlers don't do enough to spread the wealth, and there's no point waiting for someone to save you. But amidst all the tension and anxiety that looms in the background, there's the sense that everything runs on a secular version of the Serenity Prayer: focus on bettering the situations you can control, learn to help yourself and others in the situations you don't, and give listeners the sounds they need to endure both.