I’m New Here by Gil Scott-Heron

I'm New Here, Gil Scott-Heron's 15th and final studio album, came out on XL Recordings on February 8, 2010, his first new music in 16 years after a long stretch of personal and legal trouble tied to drug addiction. XL boss Richard Russell produced it, taking his cue from the xx's 2009 debut, and he wraps that weathered, gravelly voice in cold electronics, spare beats and a lot of empty space.

The result is blues stripped to the bone and reassembled after the factories closed: spoken-word folk songs, trip-hop interludes, a self-described bluesologist back at the microphone. "Me and the Devil", the single, reworks Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues" from 1937 into something that sounds like it's creeping up behind you. Most critics welcomed it warmly, and Jamie xx remade the whole thing as We're New Here the following year.

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