Five years after re-entering the popular zeitgeist with a veritable comeback record Little Dark Age, MGMT is back with news of the band’s fifth studio album, Loss of Life. News of the album, which is due out February 23rd on the band’s new home of Mom + Pop Music, arrived along with the lead single, “Mother Nature”.
Some 16 years removed from their groundbreaking debut Oracular Spectacular, the indie psych-art-pop duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser are in the midst of a second career stride. After followups Congratulations and MGMT failed to generate the same buzz from critics and fans, the group rocketed back up the charts in 2018 with Little Dark Age and its title track, which became a TikTok smash hit with over 500 million streams on Spotify. More broadly, the album returned to the hook-friendly psy-synth that brought MGMT to prominence, a trend the band continues with Loss of Life.
“I think almost every album we’ve made as MGMT, we say the same thing where we’re like, ‘Let’s just be really simple and never have too many things going on,’” VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “And then it always ends up that we pile stuff on. I think this time we finally found this good zone of restraint where it felt like things were more balanced and more confident in a way.”
Coming into view with campfire acoustic guitar strums, “Mother Nature” at first carries a striking resemblence to Oasis, something Andrew and Benjamin even cop to in press materials. The song ultimately breaks open with buzzy psych-rock electric guitars and background synths before fading into blissful oblivion. Meanwhile, in Jordan Fish‘s 3D animated music video, the ending is a little less tranquil as two animal friends named Dog and Turtle take their revenge on an evil pet collector.
“I hope the story makes people happy and feel connected to family, friends, and the animal kingdom as well,” longtime MGMT collaborator Fish said. MGMT will continue to explore the themes of Loss of Life with more upcoming videos made with more writers, producers, and directors. Additionally, the band enlisted Christine and the Queens for the song “Dancing in Babylon”, the first-ever feature on an MGMT album.
Check out the music video for “Mother Nature” and pre-order Loss of Life here. Check out the full tracklist and album artwork below.
MGMT – “Mother Nature” [Official Video]
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