It would’ve been easy for MGMT’s hype to fade after their massive 2007 debut Oracular Spectacular, but the duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser continued to evolve their sound in exciting ways, most recently on 2018’s delightful Little Dark Age. Today, after some teasing, they announced its long-awaited follow-up, Loss Of Life, and released the lead single “Mother Nature.”

MGMT produced this fifth album with Patrick Wimberly and it was mixed by Dave Fridmann. It will be the band’s first for Mom + Pop Music after 18 years on Columbia. The track “Dancing In Babylon” features Christine And The Queens and the LP includes additional production from Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), Brian Burton, James Richardson, and Miles A. Robinson. Read what the band said about Loss Of Life in a statement:

All joking aside (never!), we are very proud of this album and the fact that it was a relatively painless birth after a lengthy gestation period, and are happy to be releasing this baby into the world with Mom+Pop. Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.

“Mother Nature” is the sonic equivalent of sunshine, which is common in their music, though this time it’s from warm guitar rather than buzzing synthesizers. It comes with an animated video made by Jordan Fish, who said in a statement, “I hope the story makes people happy and feel connected to family, friends and the animal kingdom as well.”

Watch its animated video by Jordan Fish below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Loss Of Life (Part 2)”
02 “Mother Nature”
03 “Dancing In Babylon” (Feat. Christine And The Queens)
04 “People In The Streets”
05 “Bubblegum Dog”
06 “Nothing To Declare”
07 “Nothing Changes”
08 “Phradie’s Song”
09 “I Wish I Was Joking”

Loss Of Life is out 2/23 on Mom+Pop. The album cover is conceptual artist John Baldessari’s Noses & Ears, Etc. (Part Two): Two (Flesh) Faces with (Blue) Ears and Noses, Two (Flesh) Hands and Hobby Horse from 2006.