Photo by Lissyelle Laricchia
When someone goes hard for an artist, I try to take note. And I mean really go hard. Making bold claims that they found their new favorite artist in years or that a band is the best band they know out there right now kind of hard. Magdalena Bay is one of those bands that I’ve heard that passionate word of mouth buzzing around about. Following up on that high praise, “You Lose” does not disappoint. An earwormy mix of glitches, floating vocals, and cascading synths, the band has created a whole new genre of electro-pop. The pre-chorus is slightly heartbreaking in its tenderness and the chorus itself is wildly cathartic in its all out release. The track is about trying to be a musician and feeling like time for success is always running out. There’s an inherent melodrama to that scenario, but that doesn’t make the feeling of it any less real or palpable, especially after we’ve been trapped inside for 18 months forced to watch portions of our youth flit away.
The accompanying music video features a pokemon-esque video game character as the duo’s “dog” who goes missing and a laundry list of other terrible, horrible, very bad misfortunes on their search to find their lost pet. Filmed through a digi-cam and indie kids style filter, Magdalena Bay are cementing themselves as a band of this current, specific moment in time. Their is something to be said about timelessness, but their inhibition with fully committing to who they are in this current moment in not only commendable, but effective. Watching Mica Tenenbaum inhibit this multi television world, you can sense even through the screen how magnetic her energy is. The duo is clearly an outfit to watch.
The track is off Magdalena Bay’s forthcoming debut record Mercurial World, which was entirely written, produced, performed, mixed and mastered by Magdalena Bay. Mercurial World is out October 8th via Luminelle.
