Dawn Richard Reveals New Album Creole Culture

Dawn Richard has revealed details of her first solo album in half a decade. Creole Culture arrives October 9 via Merge. Big Freedia guests on the opening track. Richard has also shared “Enough,” a second taste of the LP following “Baby, Can We?”, her June single with Durand Bernarr. Listen below.

In press materials, Richard described “Enough” as being about “unlearning the lie that your value has to be earned.” She added, “Sometimes the greatest act of resistance is believing you were always worthy.”

According to Richard, Creole Culture completes a trilogy that began with her 2019 album New Breed and continued with 2021’s Second Line: An Electro Revival. "New Breed was the story of New Orleans through my father’s eyes,” she said. “Second Line was my mom…but the story felt unfinished, like my version of the story was untold.”

Since 2021, Richard has collaborated with neoclassical composer Spencer Zahn on two albums—2022’s Pigments and 2024’s Quiet in a World Full of Noise. Last year, she and the Toronto saxophonist Joseph Shabason teamed up for the Sade tribute “Broken Hearted Sade.”

Read about Dawn Richard’s Second Line at No. 21 in The 50 Best Albums of 2021.

Creole Culture:01 A Creole Culture Intro [ft. Big Freedia]02 Enough03 Only Fans04 Chuuuuurch [ft. Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph]05 Groove City [ft. Frank Richard of Chocolate Milk]06 L V R [ft. Tarriona “Tank” Ball]07 Pilates08 Baby, Can We? [ft. Durand Bernarr]09 Motives10 Fiesta11 Faith in the Fire