MGMT have announced today (Oct. 31) their fifth studio album, Loss Of Life, the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Little Dark Age. The duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser worked on the 10-track Loss Of Life with producer Patrick Wimberly (Beyoncé, Lil Yachty) and longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Spoon), who mixed the album as he has done on the group’s past four full-lengths.
Christine and the Queens appear on the song “Dancing in Babylon” – the first-ever feature on an MGMT album, which has additional production supplied by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and James Richardson, with Miles A. Robinson serving as associate producer and engineer.
Loss Of Life will be released on Feb. 23 on Mom + Pop Music, the band’s new home following a long tenure with Columbia Records. Also out today is the album’s guitar-and-synth-powered first single, “Mother Nature,” which builds from a wistful, strummy introduction to an anthemic swirl of noise by its conclusion. According to the band, the song “outlines the archetypical MGMT mythology of one hero attempting to get the other hero to come on the journey that they ‘must’ go on. One part sounds like Oasis.”
The stunning, 2n-produced animated video for “Mother Nature” was directed by another MGMT longtime collaborator, Jordan Fish, who has worked with the group since Oracular Spectacular. In the clip, two animal friends named Dog and Turtle team up to take down an evil pet collector. “I hope the story makes people happy and feel connected to family, friends and the animal kingdom as well,” says Fish. The themes of Loss Of Life will be further explored through future videos made by a remarkable roster of writers, producers and directors.
Watch the video for “Mother Nature” – BELOW:
“All joking aside (never!), we are very proud of this album and the fact that it was a relatively painless birth after a lengthy gestation period, and are happy to be releasing this baby into the world with Mom+Pop,” MGMT says. “Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.”
“Simply put, the guys did it again!,” enthuses writer/director/The Best Show co-host Tom Scharpling in an essay about Loss Of Life. “They’re now five-for-five, which last time I checked gets you into virtually any Hall of Fame. This record projects an aura of undeniable warmth throughout, an album brimming with comfortable confidence. There are epic tracks and intimate portraits, a little bit of glam here, some psych-folk there. It’s a slice of magic that fits perfectly into the MGMT oeuvre while expanding the boundaries once again.”
Loss Of Life tracklisting:
1. Loss Of Life (part 2)
2. Mother Nature
3. Dancing In Babylon (featuring Christine and the Queens)
4. People In The Streets
5. Bubblegum Dog
6. Nothing To Declare
7. Nothing Changes
8. Phradie’s Song
9. I Wish I Was Joking
10. Loss Of Life
Formed in 2002, MGMT released their influential, Grammy-nominated debut album Oracular Spectacular in 2007, followed by Congratulations in 2010 and a self-titled project three years later. The title track of the duo’s most recent album, 2018’s Little Dark Age, became an out-of-nowhere viral smash during the COVID-19 pandemic. It spawned more than five million videos about social justice, trans rights, anime and the war in Ukraine, and is currently the band’s #1 most streamed song and third most streamed all-time behind “Electric Feel” and “Kids.”
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