Los Angeles-based electro indie-pop duo Magdalena Bay—a.k.a. Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin—will release their long-awaited debut album next month, and today they share another taste of the forthcoming record. The band says the dramatic “You Lose!” is about trying to be a musician and feeling like time for success is always running out. It’s definitely melodramatic, describing ourselves as aging and nearing death, but sometimes it really feels that way.” Following the band’s previous music video for “Secrets (Your Fire),” which Pitchfork named one of the Best of August, saying “This is a Y2K lark that actually feels like being on the early internet, glitchy pop-up ads and all,” the band honors the early internet vibe on “You Lose!” “We ran out of video budget, we lost our dog, and we suck at basketball,” the band explains. “Sometimes you win but most times you lose!”

Entirely written, produced, performed, mixed and mastered by Magdalena Bay, Mercurial World will be released on October 8 via Luminelle. This album comes as a follow-up to their latest EP, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, which was released on North America’s COVID-19 Eve, March 13, 2020. With their sold-out tours with Kero Kero Bonito and Yumi Zouma canceled, Magdalena Bay found a way to do the impossible: thrive in isolation, transcend the endless doom scroll, and capture people’s attention while they were stuck indoors. As the duo have always been Extremely Online, they were uniquely primed to meet the moment, and used social platforms to organically build a dedicated following and dispatch their music in hypnotic, ephemeral bursts. From cult brochures mailed to unsuspecting fans and an immersive y2k-inspired website, to easter-eggs scattered throughout videos, Magdalena Bay has engineered a rich visual world surrounding their debut album. The result is the ridiculously good and otherworldly Mercurial World, and Magdalena Bay invites you to join them in it. 

Photo Courtesy: Lissyelle Laricchia