New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
All Songs Considered
New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
Clockwise from upper left: Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Susanne Sundfør, MGMT, Dark Rooms Courtesy of the artists hide caption
MGMT, the psych-pop duo behind one of the decade's best earworms, is back with its first new music in four years. "Little Dark Age" is the title track to their 2018 album, a pulsing, synthesized meditation on the age of anxiety over a world coming apart.
Also on the show: Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile collaborate on a new album called Lotta Sea Lice; the Brooklyn duo Howard has a new cut inspired by a surreal dream; Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør considers the possibility of reincarnation in the wake of a breakdown; and Dark Rooms, fronted by composer Daniel Hart, has a remarkable and beautifully soaring song, "I Get Overwhelmed," featured in the film A Ghost Story.
All that, plus results from the last week's poll on the songs we should retire... and the songs too good to touch.
New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
Dark Rooms
- Song: I Get Overwhelmed
This past week, Robin has been transfixed by David Lowery's latest film A Ghost Story, especially the score from composer Daniel Hart. Hart's band Dark Rooms recorded the frenetic "I Get Overwhelmed" in response to internet-induced loneliness. (Stay tuned for more from Robin's interview with Hart later this week.)
MGMT
- Song: Little Dark Age
On the title track of MGMT's forthcoming album, Little Dark Age, the band reckons with the societal chaos that's unfolded since their last album dropped in 2013. "In 'Little Dark Age,' there's this desperate shame and guilt — the hangover brought on by years of apathy, irony, and vanity," the band told us. "And what to do about it? Bring a stone — hurl it at the mirrored window? We live in an age of 'disintegrating things,' but what are those things?" Little Dark Age is out in 2018.
New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
Susanne Sundfør
- Song: Reincarnation
Norwegian artist Susanne Sundfør's latest album, Music For People In Trouble, acts as a global and personal reassessment of sorts. On "Reincarnation," she steeps apocalyptic musings in rich pedal steel.
New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile
- Song: Blue Cheese
A standout from Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile's new collaborative record Lotta Sea Lice, Vile wrote "Blue Cheese" as a teen. "I used to just play it on my banjo and harmonica," he told us, "but I went back into it in Hawaii recently on a family vacation following a tour in Asia." Following a stylistic switch-up, the song worked its way into Lotta Sea Lice. "I just figured it would be one song to do if there was time at the end of the recording sessions, and there was. It's definitely silly, but what can I say: Courtney and my wife and my daughters love it."
New Mix: MGMT, Courtney Barnett And Kurt Vile, More
Howard
- Song: Mother's Wedding
The inspiration for Howard's latest single came to frontman Howard Feibusch in a thrift store dream. If something about the track sounds nonlinear, it's because each verse was recorded with different drums and guitars to capture a "hodge-podge" feeling.