The essential Magdalena Bay, who were not missing from our 2021 special with their album ‘Mercurial World’, are back. This week they are releasing their new release ‘Imaginal Disk’, a new varied album faithful to their magical style and so indebted to the crazy times we live in. Their most notable single is called ‘Death & Romance’ and is our Song of the Day today.
A 70s-inspired piano – like so many of their arrangements – is the first thing we hear on ‘Death & Romance’. Then, the soft voice of Mica Tenenbaum, who in this case is telling us the story of someone who never tires of waiting: “I wait for hours for your car. Is it too late for us? Are we too far away?” The title of the song comes from the chorus “you know nothing is fair when it comes to death and romance.”
If the piano is the guiding force in the production of ‘Death & Romance’, it is also worth highlighting the push of the bass towards the dance floor, as well as the psychedelic effects that appear in an instrumental bridge and that gain prominence as the song progresses.
In an interview with Paper Mag, in which the journalist says that he thinks this is the best song on Magdalena Bay, Mica says that this is the first one they wrote for this album, during the ‘Mercurial World’ tour, during a two-week break. “It was very special.”
Matthew Lewin points out that they started with ‘Fear, Sex’, which comes immediately after the album in the sequence as both tracks go together. When they finished ‘Fear, Sex’ they thought they needed the song that came before it, as it sounded like an epilogue to them, and that’s where ‘Death & Romance’ was born. In fact, the galactic-themed music video brings the two tracks together.
