Mykki Blanco has announced a new album, Stay Close To Music, due October 14 via Transgressive (pre-order). The album was produced by FaltyDL and came out of the same sessions that led to 2021's Broken Dreams & Beauty Sleep. It features recent singles "Family Ties" with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and "Your Love With A Gift" with Diana Gordon, as well as songs featuring ANOHNI, Jónsi of Sigur Ros, Devendra Banhart, Kelsey Lu, Saul Williams, Ah-Mer-Ah-Su, MNEK, and Slug Christ. Along with the announcement comes the single version of "French Lessons" featuring Kelsey Lu (ANOHNI is also on the album version). Mykki says:
The song is a reflection on the possibility of true love, on the notion that one truly can experience what we see in the Hollywood films. The song is also this ode in a way to Lou Reed. I'm not what I would consider a singer at all, I'm a talk-singer so I look to people in history who have that same style: Tom Petty, Jonathan Richmond of the Modern Lovers, Lou Reed - these are all AMAZING ‘talk singers’ and I feel comfortable in that style vocally. The song was originally composed by FaltyDL andit encapsulated so much sonically of what I was trying to articulate with my own music. FaltyDL has a way of touching on the spiritual subtleties of life. He is able somehow to create mystery out of banality, to create tranquility and fill a room with zen like vibrations, something unnameable and yet so familiar a feeling.