Sit Down For Dinner, the new album from Blonde Redhead, is out this Friday on section1. Now the band unveils two new singles, “Sit Down For Dinner Pt. I” and “Sit Down for Dinner Pt. II,” and an accompanying short film. Directed by longtime Blonde Redhead collaborator Sebastian Mlynarski, “Sit Down For Dinner (Pts. 1 & 2)” collages historical news clips with stunning footage of founding members Kazu Makino and Amedeo and Simone Pace. Spurred by a passage from Joan Didion’s 2005 memoir of grief, The Year of Magical Thinking, as well as Makino’s own reflection on her parents far away in Japan, Sit Down For Dinner — and its two title tracks — evokes the heavy, omnipresent feeling that life could change in the instant for any of us. There was one Didion line in particular that would eventually lend itself to the album’s title: “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”
 
Makino adds: “‘Sit Down for Dinner’ is written like a journal and I suppose it’s confessional. ‘Part 1’ starts with me living on a remote island and contemplating what to do. ‘Part 2’ is me writing to my mother and father alongside inspiration from Ms. Didion’s writing. It touches on death and destiny and how we move through our lives without knowing how and when the end will come (with no pity). I’m excited by the way I was able to put down my rather terrifying thoughts on top of ‘uplifting’ music. You would never guess what I’m singing about.”

Of the video, Mlynarski says: “The inspiration for the film I made for ‘Sit Down For Dinner’ was the result of long conversations with Kazu. It was important to both of us to create visuals that were deceptively simple. She told me that the song was partially written in honor of her friend’s passing and that got us talking about death. We talked about the various types of death we experience in a lifetime, like an ego death, the death of a loved one, or a death of ideals. Culturally there’s been a lot of discussion about the death of masculinity so we were also interested in that. I turned to the footage of conflict, political uprisings, and sports. For every win there’s a loss, for every victor, there’s a loser. To a certain degree, I think we are always both. Some people die victorious on a hill somewhere, some die doing something they love, but there could also be someone who may die getting ready to sit down for dinner in front of their favorite television show.”

Sit Down for Dinner is immaculately structured, imbued with sensitivity, clarity, and resolve. Throughout the album, the understated yet visceral melodies create a foil to lyrics about the inescapable struggles of adulthood. It’s a meticulous and immersive testament to the unique internal logic Blonde Redhead have refined over their three-decade existence, one characterized by the sense of persistent togetherness.

Photo Courtesy: Charles Billot