Cleo Reed Announces New EP Is This How Empires Die?: Hear “American Dream”

Cleo Reed's 2025 album Cuntry was one of last year's very best, a thrilling electronic folk rebuke to the tyranny of labor. Today, the New York-based multidisciplinary artist is announcing an epilogue of sorts, an EP entitled Is This How Empires Die?, and sharing its country-inspired lead single "American Dream." According to Reed:"american dream" is my anti-anthem, like the panic after waking up from a bad dream in a cold sweat. It’s afro-surrealist. It’s anti-imperial. I took on the daunting task and now we’re here! The age of AI-music, mass flooding, surveillance, and crisis – somehow interrupted by the occasional joys of traditional holidays. I wrote the song for the hypothetical day when I’m celebrating the 4th of July and then the storm comes. This is a moment of waking from the perfect dream. Face reality.The song's accompanying music video was filmed 30 miles outside Tulsa in Beggs, Oklahoma on the Fourth of July at the multigenerational Black rodeo hosted annually by the Demery Family. Check out "American Dream" ahead of Reed's appearance at the Pitchfork Music Festival in London tomorrow.Is This How Empires Die? is out 12/4. Pre-order it here.Adam Davis