Funkadelic electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay will be bringing us into their full neon universe this Friday with their debut album Mercurial World. We’ve already gotten shiny glimmers of it with a few singles, and we get the final one today called “Hysterical Us.” The latest single, which comes with a video directed by Ian Clontz, is sort of special, giving us a ride into the art world of the New Orleans–based MILAGROS Collective.
“‘Hysterical Us’ is about our anxieties, paranoias, and existential musings,” the band shared of the new single. Mica Tenenbaum sings about the absurdity of our involuntary ability to breath, simply “sucking in oxygen.” Later she questions if we’re alone or alive, begging a larger existential query about the state of human existence. In the visual, MILAGROS have helped the duo contemplate these odd questions with an even odder, playful backdrop. There’s a giant, chomping puppet on a kookily painted van that rides around in a green field. It’s like a modern-day Magical Mystery Tour.
“Hysterical Us” captures the vibrant massiveness of the world Magdalena Bay have created for Mercurial World. “[It] has a lot of outsized themes on it, like destiny, death, and doing the impossible,” Tenenbaum explained about the album. “It’s not exactly a concept album, but we love prog-rock, so we love a concept.”
Watch it below.
