Big Red Machine Announce How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is out now on Jagjaguwar / 37d03d.
Out today is a visualiser for the song, ‘Brycie’. A heartwarming ode to brother-hood.
On release they also shared visualiser for the track, ‘Birch’ (feat. Taylor Swift) – watch below:
and another for the album track, ‘Reese’.
Big Red Machine is the ever-evolving project from Aaron Dessner (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). The 15-song album features the contributions of luminaries from the duo’s creative community including Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes), Taylor Swift, Anaïs Mitchell, Ben Howard, This Is The Kit, Naeem, Ilsey, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond), The Westerlies and more.
In a recent New York Times profile, Dessner explained the nature of Big Red Machine:
“To me it’s like a laboratory for experimentation and also a vehicle to collaborate with friends and try to grow,” Dessner said. “And also to just reconnect with the feeling of what it’s like when you first start playing music — what it’s like when you’re making stuff without really knowing what it is.
Big Red Machine’s latest release is both the product of that group effort, and the manifestation of Dessner’s musical vision, with Vernon stepping out of the spotlight. In the same profile, Vernon explains:
I wanted it to feel much more inclusive and representative of all the extracurricular energy that we’ve been putting in over the years, trying to make the music industry a little more communist or something,” he said. “And I got so tired of being lead singer guy, and I’m in another band. I was like, you’ve got so many connections. Let’s reach out and see what other people have feelings on these tracks. And I wanted to continue to support Aaron and honestly challenge him, frankly, to get out in front more. There are little bits and pieces that I show up and do on the record, and I obviously wrote some words and sang some tunes, but really, this is Aaron’s record.
Photo credit: Graham Tolbert (dl here)
What people are saying about How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? :
“Renegade” shares the thoughtfulness of Swift’s 2020 songwriting renaissance but leaves her words wandering in Dessner and Vernon’s exploratory landscape.” – Pitchfork
“A plaintive piano ballad filled with atmospheric and textural touches.” – Rolling Stone on “Latter Days”
“indie rock gods”- The FADER
“Renegade” tugs on the heartstrings” – Variety
“a soft, low-key track in a tricky time signature, and it finds Justin Vernon really giving his falsetto a workout. Dessner and Vernon love to intricately layer sounds, and they really pile up the voices on this one.” – Stereogum on “Mimi”
“Phoenix” feels golden, loose, and sun-kissed” – Brooklyn Vegan
“Pecknold opens the proceedings with an image that captures the track’s gentle pianos piercing though hazy synths. ” – Consequence on “Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell)”
“Lovely” – Stereogum
“The trio does it again with another stunning Folklore-sounding song filled with Swift’s most searing songwriting to date…” – NYLON on “Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)”
“Renegade” carries the texture of a modern National song — all skittering beats and emotional warfare for adults — but the experience of hearing Swift leave her imprint on that world remains thrilling, even after many months and multiple Bon Iver duets. They sing together here, too, and it’s just as satisfying as “Exile.” – Billboard
More About How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?
The generous spirit and desire to push music forward has never been more deeply felt than on Big Red Machine’s “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,” the second album from Aaron Dessner’s ever-morphing project with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.
Collaborators and friends show up across the album, continuing the reciprocal exchange of ideas that has come to define their creative community. Songs feature guest vocals and writing contributions from artist friends including Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold (“Phoenix”); Ben Howard and This Is The Kit (“June’s a River”); Naeem (“Easy to Sabotage’); Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Nova (“Hutch”); and Taylor Swift (“Birch” and “Renegade”). Swift’s sister albums “folklore” and “evermore” were co-produced by Dessner, and her encouragement helped Dessner realize “how connected this Big Red Machine music was to everything else I was doing, and that I was always supposed to be chasing these ideas.”
“That’s what makes it special,” Dessner says. “With everyone that’s on this record, there’s an openness, a creative generosity and an emotional quality that connects it all together.”
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last tracklist:
01 – Latter Days (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
02 – Reese
03 – Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell)
04 – Birch (feat. Taylor Swift)
05 – Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)
06 – The Ghost of Cincinnati
07 – Hoping Then
08 – Mimi (feat. Ilsey)
09 – Easy to Sabotage (feat. Naeem)
10 – Hutch (feat. Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, and Shara Nova [My Brightest Diamond])
11 – 8:22am (feat. La Force)
12 – Magnolia
13 – June’s a River (feat. Ben Howard and This Is The Kit)
14 – Brycie
15 – New Auburn (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
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