It’s been well over five years since MGMT released Little Dark Age, their most recent album, and the New York duo hasn’t exactly given the impression that they’re in a rush to follow it up. Back in May, MGMT played the blog-rock nostalgia-fest Just Like Heaven, performing their debut album Oracular Spectacular in full. MGMT released the 12″ single “As You Move Through The World” in 2020, and bandleader Andrew VanWyngarden has come out with a couple of solo tracks since then. MGMT members have also contributed to recent records from Lil Yachty and Cola Boyy. But now it’s looking like we might get a new MGMT record before the end of the year.

Andrew VanWyngarden has lately taken to posting on MGMT’s subreddit. Yesterday, under the headline “it automatically remembered my login info actually,” VanWyngarden posted a photo of a couple of test pressings, with a banana sitting on top of them.

it automatically remembered my login info actually
byu/SnailOnTheSlope inmgmt

Last year, MGMT released the live album 11.11.11. On that subreddit earlier this year, one fan said that the live album “was great but I kinda want new material.” VanWyngarden responded, “I’d say there’s a 99.999% chance mgmt releases a new full length album sometime in 2023.”

Six months ago, he posted a photo with the line “Just got done cooking L.O.L.” and added that “this is not album artwork just a photo.” Fans, for whatever, guessed that the “L.O.L.” was a hint at the album title and that it might be called Loss Of Life. On the photo of the test pressings, someone scrawled the phrase “elf of soils,” which is an anagram of Loss Of Life.

As long as we’re playing the scavenger-hunt detective game: Does that banana mean they’re going for a Velvet Underground kind of thing? Or did someone just feel like eating a banana?