Muck Sticky – “In Ya Neighorhood” – Loaded with a sticky groove and streetwise urgency!

Right off the cuff, you understand that legendary underground recording artist (among many other things), Muck Sticky, is not your ordinary man-next-door variety of homo sapiens. He currently holds the world record for ‘most consecutive days wearing pajamas’ at over 7,300 days (not the same pair of course), clocking in at twenty years in July of 2022. To celebrate that event, he released his 16th full-length album, “Man In Pajamas”, Produced by himself and Nick Nil. This album had been two years in the making and consists 22 tracks, with features by singer and musician Jesse Hughes aka Boots Electric (Eagles of Death Metal), saxophonist Dick Aven (Jamey Johnson Band) and drummer Paul Crosby (Saliva). The album also contains three songs from Muck and Nick’s other project, The Low Highs.

Far too often when musicians succeed in their field, it becomes far too easy for them to cling to that one sound which brought them acclaim. The more creatively equipped artists, however, are always looking for ways to better express themselves and explore new ideas. Muck Sticky’s emphasis on a universal vision of his music, allows him to work outside the box, and across the boundaries of genre and style.

Now, taken from the aforementioned “Man In Pajamas” album, comes the Muck Sticky single “In Ya Neighorhood”. Here the artist effortlessly merges soul, rhythm and blues, funk, rock and rap, in just over 3 minutes. A thick bass line with a heavy edge meets a steady slapping rhythm, underneath a cocky, self-celebratory rhyming monologue. Loaded with a sticky groove and streetwise urgency, the track will have you nodding your head until your neck breaks.

Beyond its overtly earworm nature, here one finds Muck Sticky’s intriguing wordplay as well as his interplay with the track’s rhythm and vibe. He leans on his angular vocal nuancing to pierce any improbable resistance from your ears. “Saying, I don’t know if you know about me, but I’m the one that makes you feel good. Said, I don’t know if you know about me, but they be pumping my shit in your neighborhood,” sings Muck Sticky proudly.

As a whole, “In Ya Neighorhood” is an eclectic and outspoken track that works hard to draw connections between various musical stylings, pulling ideas from the 70s right up until today’s flavors, and it fully succeeds. The production is dripping with nostalgia, and is ramped-up with confrontational urban swagger at the same time. It’s a clever attempt to give a vast variety of fans a taste of what they may be after.

Moreover, Muck Sticky appears to know how to take center stage with his attention grabbing vocal delivery. The result is a rock solid single full of self-empowering celebration and positivity, which perfectly fits his larger than life persona. If “In Ya Neighorhood” shows anything, it’s Muck Sticky’s perfect understanding of his craft. He has already been making music for over two decades, but judging by the energetic sound of his latest single, there is still much more to come.