Big Red Machine, the project featuring Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner of The National, will release their new album How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? through 37d03d on August 27. The pair today put out “Latter Days,” the lead single from their forthcoming sophomore LP, along with a video for the track.
Dessner produced the 15-track follow-up to Big Red Machine’s self-titled 2018 debut album. The group recorded How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? at Aaron’s Long Pond studio in upstate New York. Guests on the new LP include Anaïs Mitchell, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Taylor Swift, Sharon Van Etten, Naeem, Ilsey, Lisa Hannigan, Shara Nova, La Force, Ben Howard and This Is The Kit.
“This is all music I initially generated and feel emotionally connected to, but it has been very interesting to hear how different people relate to it and how different voices collide with it,” noted Aaron Dessner. “That’s what makes it special. With everyone that’s on this record, there’s an openness, a creative generosity and an emotional quality that connects it all together.”
Anaïs Mitchell shares lead vocals on “Latter Days” with Justin Vernon. “It was clear to Anaïs that the early sketch Justin and I made of ‘Latter Days’ was about childhood, or loss of innocence and nostalgia for a time before you’ve grown into adulthood — before you’ve hurt people or lost people and made mistakes,” Dessner added. “She defined the whole record when she sang that, as these same themes kept appearing again and again.”
Big Red Machine tapped Michael Brown to create a lyric video for “Latter Days,” the track that opens How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?. Watch the visual below:
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? Tracklist
- Latter Days (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
- Reese
- Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell)
- Birch (feat. Taylor Swift)
- Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)
- The Ghost of Cincinnati
- Hoping Then
- Mimi (feat. Ilsey)
- Easy to Sabotage (feat. Naeem)
- Hutch (feat. Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, and Shara Nova [My Brightest Diamond])
- 8:22am (feat. La Force)
- Magnolia
- June’s a River (feat. Ben Howard and This Is The Kit)
- Brycie
- New Auburn (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
