Beauty Pill, the Washington, DC pop experimentalists led by former Smart Went Crazy frontman Chad Clark, have released a new song. The band recorded “Instant Night” at Clark’s brothers rooftop apartment with strict social distancing, and they’re sharing it just in time for the election. “I really want people to hear this song before the election. I want people to take a moment to contemplate the choice at hand,” Clark says. “I don’t know if a song can persuade a person to vote, but I want to try. Maybe in our small way, we can try to … change the world?” As he continues:

In the last 6 months you have experienced [A] a plague [B] the deaths of a quarter million of your fellow citizens [C] a race war [D] the government throwing people into unmarked cars [E] the sky turning red and air becoming unbreathable [F] a reckless and literally sick president who openly aspires to be king.

Seems bad.

Science fiction authors have warned us about dystopia for a century now. George Orwell warned you. Margaret Atwood warned you. Ira Levin warned you. Aldous Huxley said “Facts do not cease to exist just because they’re ignored.” Philip K Dick, Samuel Delany, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein… they all warned you.

And now we are warning you, I guess.

We hope you to feel it. We hope you act accordingly.

The cinematic track — Beauty Pill’s first without drums — highlights the woodwind quartet that fused with the band in 2018, turning “scared is alright” into an extremely 2020 mantra. Listen and watch the accompanying music video, featuring political portraits from illustrator and former Beauty Pill member Ryan Nelson, below.