David Byrne has announced that his new LP Who Is the Sky? will be released on September 5 via Matador Records. The follow-up to 2018’s American Utopia was produced by Kid Harpoon and the songs were arranged by members of New York–based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. First single “Everybody Laughs” is classic joyful Byrne, featuring the iconic songwriter taking complex ideas about the human condition and making them easily digestible. It also helps that there are some tremendous rototom fills sprinkled in for fun.
Regarding the song, Byrne said: “Someone I know said, ‘David, you use the word “everybody” a lot.’ I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it. Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody, especially at the end, when St. Vincent and I are doing a lot of hollering and singing together. Music can do that—hold opposites simultaneously. I realized that when singing with Robyn earlier this year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.”
St. Vincent makes an appearance on the new record, alongside Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner, and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco. Check out the Gabriel Barcia-Colombo–directed video for “Everybody Laughs” below, and pre-order Who Is the Sky? here.
