Tuesday, Mar 8, 2022 • 34min
New Mix: Regina Spektor, a Son Lux collaboration with David Byrne and Mitski, more
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All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen shares his favorite new tracks of the week, including a collaboration between Mitski, David Byrne and Son Lux, the return of Regina Spektor and more.
Featured Tracks And Artists:
1. Son Lux, Mitski, David Byrne: "This Is A Life," from Everything Everywhere All At Once
2. Regina Spektor: "Becoming All Alone," from Home, before and after
3. Suz Slezak: "Loneliness Is Measured," from Our Wings May Be Featherless
4. Kevin Morby: "This Is A Photograph," from This Is A Photograph
5. Sharon Van Etten: "Used To It" (Single)
6. Superorganism: "Teenager (feat. CHAI & Pi Ja Ma)," from World Wide Pop
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Talking about
Speakers
(10)
Bob Boilen
David Byrne
Kevin Morby
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Transcript
Verified
Break
Bob Boilen
00:25
You're connected to
All Songs Considered
. I'm Bob Boilen
with "Wonderful News". I have a collaboration between Mitski
, David Byrne
and Son Lux
- three great minds in one song. The collaboration is part of a soundtrack to a film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
called Everything Everywhere All At Once
.Share
00:45
The soundtrack is out on April, 8 and scored by
Son Lux
. It also includes collaborations with Randy Newman
and Moses Sumney
. Here's David Byrne
on how this trio of artists came together for the song "This Is A Life".Share
David Byrne
00:59
I knew the
Son Lux
folks for quite a while, being a fan. So when they reached out to me and said they were doing the score for this film that the Daniels
had- were doing, and that they wanted a song at the end. Would I consider participating in that?Share
01:18
I immediately said yes, and then the
Daniels
jumped inб and I saw a rough cut of the film, which is kind of mind blowing, I have to say. It bent my head around, so I- which made me more excited about. And then they said, "Oh would you do it as a duet with Minsky? ", which made it even more tempting.Share
01:38
And yeah, I said, "Of course, of course, this is really exciting". We talked about what the song might be. They were going to write the basic part of the song. We talked about what it might be, that although the film is completely insane, multi-dimensions and all kinds of genres mashed together.
Share
02:01
I said, "At the heart, it's a very emotional moving thing that happens by the end of the film", and I thought that should be reflected in the song at the end. To remind you that you've actually- there is a heart to this craziness. And that's kind of what they came up with it, with this song.
Share
02:21
Mitski
did the main vocal, and I was tasked with kind of weaving my voice around hers, either adding harmonies or singing in the spaces between her lines, which is what I did. So I wrote some stuff to go in the spaces, some words for that and this, and it all worked out really well. It was very nice. It's very moving. Yeah, I'm a big fan of hers and she's on tour now. I think I'm gonna miss it because I'm gonna be on, on stage. Well, next time.Share
Speaker 4
03:07
[This Is A Life -
Son Lux
, Mitski
, David Byrne]
Share
Bob Boilen
05:40
Mitski
, David Byrne
and Son Lux
with the song "This Is A Life" from the soundtrack to Everything Everywhere All At Once
. The album's out April, 8.Share
05:50
Regina Spektor
has her first new album in six years coming out. The record's called "Home, Before And After" and it comes out June, 24. It's produced with John Congleton
and here's Regina
to tell us about the new song, "Becoming All Alone".Share
Regina Spektor
06:06
This song was written a bunch of years ago, actually. But I think, if I remember, it must have come out from that same state that many of my songs come from, which is that walking around New York city sort of gets me into this hypnotic state.
Share
06:28
And I think because there's a part of you that has to be so aware and so present, so that you don't get hit by a bus or, you know, knock into people. And then there's some other part of you that is just watching things in very much slow motion. And there are all these incredible things unfolding all around you, and the city is so sprawling and so dense and so vast.
Share
06:59
And you can really go into this meditative hypnotized state when you can start to hear music and think about things in this new kind of way. And this song definitely came out of that walking rhythmic, thoughtful state. Thank you for listening.
Share
Speaker 4
07:23
[Becoming All Alone -
Regina Spektor]
Share
Bob Boilen
11:36
Beautiful, thoughtful music from
Regina Spektor
and the song "Becoming All Alone". It's from the album "Home, Before And After". It's out June, 24 with a special homecoming show at New York's Carnegie Hall
on April, 11. For another song on loneliness, we turned to Suz Slezak and a song titled "Loneliness Is Measured".Share
11:57
You may have heard her voice on the show as part of the duo
David Wax Museum
. Suz Slezak has a solo album out called "Our Wings May Be Featherless". Here she is to fill us in on the writing of the song "Loneliness Is Measured".Share
Suz Slezak
12:11
"Loneliness Is Measured" came out of a free write that I did during the pandemic. I had a really loose brain, which is something I'm always trying to get to during writing. And it was an attempt to write about depression. Though I no longer think of depression and loneliness as so intricately linked. In my twenties, I felt like despair and depression and being alone felt like they're all wrapped up together.
Share
12:41
But as I've gotten older, I'm able to separate those things and now being able to get out of my head even when I'm experiencing depression and see it for what it is and not feel as consumed by it has been a huge change for me. I think that this idea that loneliness can be measured, or depression can be measured, is a really helpful tool for me because it lets me look at it from the outside rather than being consumed by it.
Share
13:14
And then the final verse in this song, "Your table's ready, if you only grab the fork and knife", it's like this sense that there is this other life waiting for you. And for me, just knowing that I'll get through a depressive stage has been so helpful.
Share
Speaker 4
13:58
[Loneliness Is Measured - Suz Slezak]
Share
Bob Boilen
17:07
Suz Slezak and her song "Loneliness Is Measured" is from her just released album "Our Wings May Be Featherless". It's break time. And you're listening to
All Songs Considered
from NPR Music
.Share
Break
Bob Boilen
18:19
I'm
Bob Boilen
with thrilling new music from Kevin Morby.
And it's a journey that began with Kevin
flipping through old family photos in the basement of his Kansas city childhood home. And it was sparked by his father collapsing and being rushed to the hospital earlier that day.Share
18:36
Fortunately, his father recovered. But the incident said,
Kevin
on a path to write about strength and loss and more. Here's Kevin Morby
to take us to the opening track and the title track to his new album, "This Is A Photograph".Share
Kevin Morby
18:50
This is a song that is about a family growing old, and it's sort of told in a series of photographs. It's about how families eventually passed torches from one generation to the next, and roles are reversed. And just how we're here and then we're not.
Share
19:05
Sonically, I knew that I wanted to create something that was really explosive and cathartic, since this was written during a sort of time of silence, and my career sitting dormant. I knew I wanted to have something that would feel really good to play live eventually. And when you listen to it at home, it's sort of leapt out of the speakers.
Share
19:24
The results of this is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written, recorded and captured. And this is no small part due to all the wonderful, very talented musicians that were able to call in, including a small choir of Stax Academy students in
Memphis
Tennessee
.Share
19:38
So I hope you enjoy this. My good friend Sam Cohen produced this, we recorded in
Upstate New York
and in Memphis,
Tennessee,
and we had a great time making it, and I hope you have a great time listening to it and thank you.Share
19:57
[This Is A Photograph - Kevin Morby]
Share
Bob Boilen
20:06
Kevin Morby, a great new song and the title track from his new album "This Is A Photograph". There's a video of some of those photographs
Kevin
sings about and I'll put that on the All Songs Considered
site: NPR. org/all songs. The album is out May, 13 on Dead Oceans
.Share
23:34
There's a new single from
Sharon Van Etten
. The song was originally written for a documentary about a fertility doctor who took it upon himself to impregnate women with his own sperm. As Sharon
explains, the music she wrote for the documentary Baby God
wasn't used, but the words and song titled used to it took on a whole new meaning.Share
Sharon Van Etten
23:56
When I first wrote it, it was for a score that I was supposed to be creating for a documentary that I ended up being dropped from because they went with a totally different direction. So within a year or so later I revisited the song. And the lyrics that I had initially written had a whole new light shed on them by quarantine and the idea of connection, and the idea of what family and unconditional love meant.
Share
24:29
So, in making the video, I reached out to my bandmate, Charley Damski, who I knew had previous experiences making Lo-Fi handheld camcorder style videos, which was the aesthetic I definitely wanted for this song. And we reached out to the choreographer Hayden J. Frederick, whom I had been in touch with on Instagram because they had performed very, very beautiful and emotive performances to pre-existing songs of mine.
Share
25:05
And we had an exchange online about, hopefully, one day collaborating together. And it meant the world that they wanted to be a part of this narrative for my music video, to share this new idea of what used to- it actually means about getting out, about finding the space, and about reconnecting with yourself and allowing yourself to feel those feelings on your own terms.
Share
25:41
[Used To It - Sharon Van Etten]
Share
Bob Boilen
29:54
Sharon Van Etten's
new single is called Used to it. The powerful video Sharon
talked about is up on the All Songs Considered
site.Share
30:03
Here's something fun because it's from a band that simply exudes fun,
Superorganism
. They're a collective of creatives from all over the world, including England, Japan, Australia. Their tiny desk concert from 2018, around the time of their debut album, is absolutely one of my very favorites, with floating dolphins, the sound of water buckets sipping soda. They've just announced their second album.Share
30:26
It's called "World Wide Pop" and it comes out in the summer. On their debut song, we have a guest appearance from the band,
Chai
, and here's a bunch of the band to take us to their new song, "Teenager", enjoy the fun. I'm Bob Boilen
for NPR Music
. It's All Songs Considered
.Share
Harry
30:44
Hey, this is Harry, Tucan and Orono from
Superorganism
. And you're checking out our new song "Teenager" on NPR's
All Songs Considered.
"Teenager" was actually one of the first songs that we wrote for the record. So it kind of feels apt that it's the first song that we're releasing from the record.Share
Tucan
30:59
For me, "Teenager"encapsulates the idea that the youthful spirit lives on past your teenage years. And also nostalgia for, like, the energy enthusiasm that I had and tried to keep in adult life.
Share
Harry
31:11
Yeah, and I think that we actually tried to capture that vibe in the production and the way that we went about creating the song. We wanted to create, like, this exuberant banger that explored these themes of, like, pop music and rock music, and the passage of time and, you know, all these kind of lofty themes, but condensed into a quick three minute pop song. We brought in this great producer called
Stuart Price
, look him up, he's a legend, and I think he really helped us refine it and take it to that next level.Share
Orono Noguchi
31:40
Being in a, quote, band in the modern age, I can't help but ask myself sometimes, "Is rock and roll dead? "Overall, my answer would still be a resounding "No", because similarly to punk, I consider it an ethos or a mindset rather than a genre of music. Still though, I go back and forth on it all the time.
Share
31:59
So I explored that idea through themes of getting older. I also just think it's an interesting and polarizing topic to discuss with other musicians and music fanatics, so I'm very curious what Bob's thoughts are on the subject.
Share
Tucan
32:14
I'm super proud of the song, were so excited to share it with the world.
Share
Harry
32:17
So here it is, check it out, "Teenager".
Share
32:25
[Teenager - Superorganism]
Share
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Emma Choi
Bob Boilen
David Byrne
Regina Spektor
Suz Slezak
Kevin Morby
Sharon Van Etten
Harry
Tucan
Orono Noguchi