I can’t imagine that anyone who’s familiar with the band has ever been confused about whether the song they’re hearing is the work of Black Moth Super Rainbow. Aside from band leader Tom Fec’s sidequest as Tobacco, which generally features the same vocoded voice and smeared-paint psychedelic musical palette—or even the side-quests that that moniker has taken him on, such as Malibu Ken alongside Aesop Rock, or a few features on The Flaming Lips’ 2013 Peace Sword EP—each of the surreal texts recorded by the Pittsburgh band over the past 22 years has been a wholly original experience inhabiting the same strange-trip psychosis as the video art Everything Is Terrible! has been responsible for over roughly the same stretch of time.
Soft New Magic Dream marks BMSR’s first new album in over eight years, and in one sense it picks up precisely where they left off with 2018’s Panic Blooms, while in another it’s a total reinvention. “Every song on this album took either years or a few days,” Fec shares in his track-by-track assessment of the LP, which teeters between their familiar hypnagogia and new strains that manage to pull from both the distant past and immediate present—such as “The Eyes in Season,” which feels like an extraterrestrial take on classic R&B and the future of the genre all at once. Meanwhile, opener “Open the Fucking Fantasy” does exactly what it tells us it will, reacquainting listeners with the singular mind behind these songs while serving as something of a refresh for Fec following the release of Panic Bloom. “I knew if there was ever gonna be another BMSR album that this would set the tone, and it took me seven years of thinking about this song to get it right.”
With the record arriving today via Fec’s own Rad Cult, find a stream of Soft New Magic Dream and his full breakdown of the LP below.
1. “Open the Fucking Fantasy”
I started writing this a few months after finishing the last BMSR [project]. For me, that first thing I make after being balls deep in an album for so long always feels like that first new breath where no decisions have to be made and anything can happen—not trying to make an album, or even a song. Just seeing what flows when there’s nowhere to go and nothing to do. I knew if there was ever gonna be another BMSR album that this would set the tone, and it took me seven years of thinking about this song to get it right.
2. “All 2 of Us”
Half Siamese-twin breakup song, half post-depression clarity song. But like most of my songs, you can probably make it about anything you want.
3. “Tastebud”
Feeling like I did in 2006 when I made it. It would be fun to recapture more of this.
4. “Demon’s Glue”
Lotta personal meaning in this song that I’ll never talk about, but the old Panic Blooms me would have made it very differently. I wanted it to have a fantasy world, Wizard-of-Oz kind of feel that takes you away and disorients a little. There’s a song that I cut that I love so much, but was too abstract for this album, but it’s like the other side of this song.
5. “The Dripping Royalty”
Quick and to-the-point. I wish I could do this all the time and have it come out as right as this. Every song on this album took either years or a few days. This was days.
6. “Brain Waster”
This is the most BMSR song I’ve ever made. Like, my perfect vision of the band. The moment I knew for sure I had to keep going with it.
7. “The Eyes in Season”
This one makes me think of some era and place before my time. Something older than I’d ever think I’d be capable of. From my perspective, it sits alone in the pool of BMSR songs. My favorite thing about making music and something I chase every time is when I get that feeling of, like, “How did I do that!?” Just really happy I was open to whatever was trying to use me to make this song.
8. “Unknown Potion”
I started writing this in early 2020, and then every summer I would throw it on a lot and go on walks just thinking about where it should go—how should the lyrics move, how should the bass move? Sometimes I wonder if I just made myself sit down and finish it five years ago, if it would have come out the same way. In the end, it came out exactly how I wanted, so maybe I should just trust the process?
9. “Wet Spot Dare”
This one was the final piece. With this band, there have always been songs I spend a lot of time thinking about and others where I turn off the detailed part of my brain and just go. This is a “just go.” Maybe a day or two from start to finish It's probably about what you think it’s about, but in a nice way. French chorus for the one person listening over there.
10. “Sea of Hair”
The big ender. Been writing this on and off since 2019. Patiently waiting for it to become obvious what it was. Another one where the chorus doesn’t even feel like I wrote it, [but] someone writing it through me. Maybe everyone who’s dead from that “We Are the World” song.
