On CAFE PARADISO, Blanco emerges completely reborn, trading the persona-driven theatrics of previous releases for something more interior, sensual and exacting. Drawing inspiration from a life lived in transit - from New York lunch counters and East Village dive bars to Paris cafés and the tea houses of Tangier - the album assembles what Blanco calls “a record for artsy kids”, a soundtrack for “cosmopolitan aesthetes to sit alone in a café and work on crafting the life of their dreams, or just make sense of it.”
 

The lush lead single “Little Feet” sets the tone for the album as a soundtrack for the “wayward metropolitan”. Over a sultry, nostalgic groove, Mykki Blanco, Isiah and Breakaway drift through scenes of late-night wandering, fleeting hookups and dancing beneath city streetlights, conjuring a nightlife world that feels intimate, cinematic and slightly unreal. The accompanying video, directed by Alvaro Kreyden, extends the track’s nocturnal glamour into something even more decadent, capturing the restless romance and transient connections at the heart of CAFE PARADISO.
 

Set inside a sprawling European mansion, the video brings Blanco’s vision of the metropolitan bon vivant fully into focus: someone drawn equally to hedonism, experimentation and artistic expression, where games of “spin the bottom” dissolve into sensual, oil-slicked interpretive choreography.
 

“If there is one thing I know how to do, it’s how to get the most out of life”, Blanco says. “You fuck up. You make mistakes. But hopefully, you’re achieving more than you’re fucking up. Overall, I would say I do well, milking life for all it’s got.”
 

If Blanco’s catalogue has long been defined by constant reinvention, CAFE PARADISO represents a new kind of clarity. Following 2022’s Stay Close to Music and the 2023 Postcards from Italia EP, Blanco stepped away from recording to pursue a Master in Fine Arts in Switzerland, deepening a multidisciplinary visual art practice before returning to songwriting with renewed focus.
 

“I love creating music but I’ve never liked the idea of being a one-trick pony”, Blanco explains. “I need to check some things off my ‘Life List.’”
 

CAFE PARADISO moves fluidly between styles and scenes, pulling together fragments of dance music, art pop, underground club culture and genre-splicing experimentation into what Blanco describes as a “three-act play” or “a festival album”, citing references as diverse as Saint Etienne, The Silver Apples and Towa Tei.

At its core, however, CAFE PARADISO is an album about stillness, observation and the quiet intensity of being alone in public. “It’s not a point A-to-B record, or a pre-game record”, Blanco says. “It’s an album about enjoying your own company”.
 

CAFE PARADISO does not mark a rupture so much as a refinement in the career of Mykki Blanco. Drawing together years of experimentation across music, performance, and visual art, which has seen him collaborate with artists including Arca, Basement Jaxx, Charli XCX, Jamila Woods, Blood Orange, Kelsey Lu, Michael Stipe, Anohni and Jónsi, this album arrives at a point of transient clarity - it is a confident statement of intent, positioning Blanco not simply as a shape-shifter, but as an artist in full command of his present form.
 

CAFE PARADISO is released 4 September 2026 via Transgressive.

CAFE PARADISO Tracklist: 

1. Little Feet

2. NYC Dogs

3. Butt Sex

4. Easy Does It

5. Wasted in Soho

6. FOXES

7. F**k as Friends

8. Hey Dopeman

9. Tough Guy

10. Cut Me Open

11. Spread For Me

12. God Is Alive

https://www.facebook.com/p/Mykki-blanco-61555676435529/