Genesis Owusu launches Redstar Wu after two ARIA wins
Genesis Owusu has released his third album, Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge, extending a run that already includes two ARIA album of the year winners. The new record arrives after Smiling With No Teeth in 2021 and Struggler in 2023, and it pushes his sound into material that is openly tied to the 2020s.
Sydney Opera House in September
Last September, Owusu road-tested material from the then-untitled album at three intimate gigs at Sydney Opera House, performing in the round. That move gave the songs a live test before release and showed he was treating the project as something bigger than a standard follow-up.
The album now lands with a clear frame from the artist himself: it exists “very much on planet Earth in the 2020s.” That is a sharper and less symbolic target than the work that preceded it, and it places the record in direct conversation with the political atmosphere he is writing about rather than a more abstract concept album mode.
Redstar Wu on the record
Owusu-Ansah describes the Redstar Wu alias as “me seeing the world as it is,” and the songs carry that tone across the first trio of singles, Pirate Radio, Stampede and Death Cult Zombie. Across those tracks he skewers billionaires, “alt-right” hucksters and casual and flagrant racism, so the album arrives with a much more explicit edge than a purely stylistic pivot.
The fourth single, Life Keeps Going, leans dancey and came with a video shot during his first creative trip to Ghana last year. That release broadens the album’s presentation beyond the more confrontational singles, giving the campaign a second register before listeners reach the full track list.
Dann Hume in Wales
The album was made in a converted church in Wales with collaborator Dann Hume, the producer and songwriter who helped shape the record after Struggler was made during global touring. That production setup matters because it puts the project in a controlled studio environment rather than the road-tested circumstances that fed the previous album.
Two guest spots widen the frame without changing the album’s core agenda: Hellstar features US rapper Duckwrth, and Falling Both Ways brings in New Zealand indie-pop artist Ladyhawke. The track list also includes 4Life and Big Dog, with Big Dog singled out as a late-album standout, while The Worldwide Scourge carries the line “How dare they pillage Gaza and still have the nerve to sleep at night,” the sharpest sign that Owusu is writing this record as direct commentary, not coded suggestion.
For listeners who have followed the run from Smiling With No Teeth to Struggler, the practical takeaway is simple: Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge is not a reset, but a more explicit version of the same ambition. Owusu has turned a decorated streak into an album that names its targets, and that usually means the live set, not just the studio version, is where this cycle will really harden.
