“This record being the third in a trilogy of song collections mostly based on film music I wrote for Spike Lee over the past few years, I wanted to move to some new stylistic places and maybe make a more upbeat record overall. We don’t get a ballad until #7, the pandemic shut-down era piece “Days Ahead” ( a duet with Danielle Haim). Lyrically the record is dotted with three Covid-related songs; the aforementioned, “Tag” and the album opener “Sidelines” (a duet with Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend), and otherwise ranges far afield with the world of science again a recurring influence (“Lidar” and “Point Omega”). The record also includes the first cover song I’ve ever put on a studio release, a total re-imagining of Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business.” The album title “‘Flicted” relates to this strange time in which we live, when the world is basically, well, ‘flicted!”