Andrew Veeder on November 4th, 2014

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The enigmatic U.K. artist Dean Blunt’s music is hard to classify. As one half of the now-disbanded group Hype Williams with Inga Copeland, they created experimental and unconventional pop music, shirking interviews with nearly anything but the truth, while Blunt’s divisive 2013 solo album, “The Redeemer,” was full of murky R&B and samples. His new album, “Black Metal,” with a stark black cover and tiny “Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics” sticker in the corner, is out today via Rough Trade and sounds anything but what its title suggests. It’s actually all over the place, beginning lo-fi and reflective with lyrics touching on alienation and loss, before delving into bouts of synthy ambiance, glitchy electronica, chaotic sound collage and saxophone solos, with song titles like “Country” and “Punk” that sound nothing of the sort. The melancholy lead single “50 Cent” is like folky hip-hop, fusing jangly guitar and simple, stuttering percussion with backing vocals by Joanne Robertson, and spoken-sung lyrics such as “Why I want a girl doesn’t want me back / Try to let it go but I can’t relax / She got a new n*gga, now he can’t be found” and “All my n*ggas who think they’re real / If you know how I feel / Never mess with explosives, yeah,” before winding down to a stand still.

||| Stream: “50 Cent”

||| Live: Dean Blunt plays Jewel’s Catch One on Friday.