Genesis Owusu goes new-wave on groovy new single ‘Get Inspired’

Genesis Owusu has returned with his second new single for the year: a groovy new tune titled ‘Get Inspired’, which seems to see the genre-bending artist tap into a sound inspired by ‘80s and ‘90s new-wave.

The song is unmistakably Owusu’s, shining with a driving beat and playful, rhythmic cadence (produced by Dann Hume and Andrew Klippel) reminiscent of ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ cuts like ‘The Other Black Dog’ and ‘Black Dogs!’ – the latter of which also drew influence from acts of the ‘80s and ‘90s, albeit mostly from the punk genre – over which the artist sings with a sharp, quasi-rapped flow.

Soaring over a subtle yet impactful bassline, Owusu sings: “Cliché, your face not making dollars, baby, it’s not making sense / How you picky with your art when you can’t even pay your rent? / Shift for years and years and years but seems you haven’t made a dent / All that dream and shit you chasing showed its face then came and went.”

The song builds with bright guitars and warbly synths, peaking with sirenesque wails before Owusu dips into a falsetto breakdown. Have a listen to it below:

‘Get Inspired’ follows on from ‘GTFO’, which Owusu dropped back in July as the first single detached from the ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ era. That album – Owusu’s debut full-length effort – arrived last March via Ourness, and alongside ‘The Other Black Dogs’, featured singles like ‘Don’t Need You’, ‘Whip Cracker’, ‘I Am’, ‘Gold Chains’ and ‘A Song About Fishing’.

In a four-star review of the album – which would go on to win two J Awards, four ARIAs and last year’s Australian Music Prize – NME’s Cyclone Wehner called ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ “a riveting album that underscores the power of self-knowledge, perspective and art”. It also topped NME’s lists of last year’s best Australian albums and best debut albums, and earned Owusu the 2022 BandLab NME Award for Best Album By An Australian Artist.

A deluxe edition of ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ arrived last July, with singles from it including ‘Same Thing’ and ‘The Fall’. Around the same time, Owusu featured on singles by PRICIE (‘Friendzone’) and Anna Lunoe (‘Back Seat’), while over the past year, he’s linked up with the likes of Winston Surfshirt (for ‘There’s Only One’), Tasman Keith (‘Cheque’) and Agung Mango (‘GUAP POP’).

Owusu is currently on the road with Tame Impala, opening for their ‘Rushium’ tour of Australian arenas. Next month, he’ll perform at the inaugural Harvest Rock festival in Adelaide, before delivering sets all dates on the touring Spilt Milk and Falls festivals, and Lost Paradise on the NSW Central Coast. Yesterday (October 20), it was announced that he’d also appear at next year’s WOMADelaide festival.

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