Cautious Clay - The Hours: Morning (2025)

It’s a brand new day for Cautious Clay, and he’s taking it head on. The singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist also known as Joshua Karpeh hits a galvanizing stride that unfolds hour-by-hour on his newest project, The Hours: Morning, a conceptual endeavor that’s equal parts mixtape and emotive timetable. Facing daybreak with a certain pop precision that he’s honed over the past decade, it’s a project that further illuminates Karpeh as an artist whose strength lies in his dexterity.

Of this batch, the eight that appear on The Hours: Morning were selected on the basis of which Karpeh associates with each waking hour. Lead single “No Champagne” radiates with the warmth of sunrise beaming through the window, casting light on hard truths in a relationship: “Whether it’s morning or night, I see the waves taking their shape when your skin hits the light, I get a feeling I can’t shake” he emotes on the song. “It was keeping me awake till six in the morning.”

“I was really trying to set an image around defining the difference between expectation versus reality. Being in a space with someone that you care about and understanding what they want out of a relationship versus what you want out of a relationship,” Karpeh says of the song. ”When we’re at our worst, how are we translating with that person in a room? When there’s no champagne, when there’s no real reason to celebrate – how are you actually connecting to me? How are we actually connecting to each other?”

Vacillating from bleary-eyed to bombastic, the eight pop-driven tracks on The Hours: Morning continue to steer the listener through an entirely subjective interpretation of daybreak, one he describes as “more conversational than intensely personal.” Time may be a flat circle but the dimension that Karpeh is evoking through the ever-expanding scope of his work is indisputable.

Tracklist
1. Tokyo Lift (5am) (2:25)
2. No Champagne (6am) (2:35)
3. Traffic (7am) (2:55)
4. The Plot (8am) (2:16)
5. Promises (9am) (2:55)
6. Father Time (10am) (2:28)
7. Amber (11am) (2:41)
8. Smoke Break (12pm) (2:38)