Choke Enough

Choke Enough
Studio album by Oklou
Released	7 February 2025 (2025-02-07)
Genre	Synth-pop bedroom pop[1] hypnagogic pop art pop
Length	35:44
Label	True Panther Sounds
Producer	Oklou Casey MQ Danny L Harle A. G. Cook
Oklou chronology
Galore Anniversary (2021) Choke Enough (2025)
Singles from Choke Enough
"Family and Friends" Released: 18 September 2024 "Harvest Sky / Obvious" Released: 16 October 2024 "Choke Enough" Released: 21 November 2024 "Take Me by the Hand" Released: 15 January 2025 "Blade Bird" Released: 5 February 2025 "Viscus" Released: 9 October 2025

Choke Enough (stylised in all lowercase) is the debut studio album by French musician, singer and producer Oklou. It released on 7 February 2025, via True Panther Sounds. The album features guest appearances by Swedish rapper and singer Bladee, and American musician Underscores. It was supported by the singles "Family and Friends", "Harvest Sky", the title track, "Take Me by the Hand", and "Blade Bird", which was named The Fader's #1 song of the year.^[2] Choke Enough has received considerable critical acclaim, including being named as the best album of 2025 by Crack and Time Out, and as one of the best albums of the year by The New York Times, Pitchfork and The Fader.^[3][4][5]

Background and recording

Similarly to her 2020 mixtape Galore, Choke Enough was made primarily in collaboration with Canadian musician Casey MQ. The album took Oklou two and a half years to finish,^[6] and explores "the quest of meaning".^[7] She stated:

Choke Enough is a very intense album for me. It's filled with directions, tentatives and irregularities, reflecting on my last years on this planet as my heart and conscience has really decentered from myself.^[8]

The album was primarily recorded in Paris, Los Angeles, and Cap Ferret.^[9]

Release and promotion

Oklou released the album's first single, "Family and Friends", on 18 September 2024.^[10] She released "Harvest Sky" featuring Underscores and "Obvious" on 16 October 2024.^[11] She announced the album on 21 November 2024 and released its title track.^[12] She released "Take Me by the Hand" featuring Bladee as the album's fourth single on 15 January 2025.^[13] "Blade Bird", the album's fifth single, was released on 5 February 2025.^[14]

She announced a deluxe edition of the album, scheduled to release on 30 October 2025, on 8 October 2025 with the single "Viscus" featuring FKA Twigs.^[15]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100[18]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Paste	8.8/10[19]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[20]
The Skinny	[21]
Sputnikmusic	3.6/5[22]

Choke Enough has been met with acclaim from music critics. According to the review aggregator Metacritic, it received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 from 6 critic scores.^[18]

Writing for Pitchfork, Walden Green described Choke Enough as a "foggy, twilit fusion of Y2K worship and medieval melodicism" and praised how it was "cognizant of music theory, historical context, and most importantly, motif," leading him to feel that it was "more formally compelling than it is viscerally moving."^[20] Paste's Matt Mitchell wrote that Oklou's references to grief, self-obsession, and neo-pagan rituals were only one layer to the project's "tabula rasa of tone poetry," noting that "its songs are sonorous, versatile and aim for intimacy rather than branding, cliché and casualness."^[19]

Track listing

Notes

• All tracks are stylised in all lowercase.
• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer.
• ^{^[b]}The title is pronounced “snif,” and for a brief period, it was even renamed as such on Spotify.^{[citation needed]}
• ^{^[c]}There is a 1:56 minutes long silence between blade bird and bébé lou, extending the album playtime to 40:23 minutes.

Personnel

• Oklou – executive production, mixing (tracks 7, 10)
• Nathan A. Salon – saxophone (track 1)
• Casey MQ – vocal choir (track 3)
• Zsela – vocal choir (track 3)
• Cecile Believe – vocal choir (track 3)
• Lillian Mille – trumpet (track 4)
• Lucien Krampf – vocal engineering (track 6)
• Florian Le Prisé – guitar (track 13)
• Nathan Boddy – mixing (tracks 1–6, 8, 9, 11–13)
• Matt Colton – mastering
• Anthony Naples – Atmos mixing
• Gil Gharbi – photography
• Florian Solin – photography
• Kim Coussée – artwork

Charts

References