The Great American Novel (Vinyl 12″ Album) – Proper

Following 2019’s critically-acclaimed second album, ‘I Spent the Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better’, Proper. make their return with ‘The Great American Novel’. Recorded by Bartees Strange in early 2021 and mixed/mastered by Brian DiMeglio, the new record is, in the words of vocalist Erik Garlington, ‘a concept album about how Black genius, specifically my own, goes ignored, relentlessly contested, or just gets completely snuffed out before it can flourish. This record is a concept album that’s meant to read like a book; every song is a chapter following the protagonist through their 20s. Imagine a queer, Black Holden Caufield-type coming up in the 2010s’.