Mom+Pop Music has prevailed over several majors and other indies in the contest to sign MGMT following the expiration of its long-running Columbia deal and will release the duo’s first album in five years, Loss of Life, on 2/23.

The lead single “Mother Nature” is out today (10/31) in tandem with an animated video helmed by longtime collaborator Jordan Fish. Mom+Pop co-owners Michael Goldstone and Thaddeus Rudd celebrated by sending our congratulatory calls to voicemail and doing quality control on a big bowl of Halloween candy.

Loss of Life is MGMT’s follow-up to 2018’s Columbia swan song, Little Dark Age, the title track of which became a surprise TikTok smash in 2020 and is now the band’s third-most-streamed song. The new set was produced by MGMT and Patrick Wimberly (Beyoncé, Lil Yachty), with assistance from Oneohtrix Point Never, Danger Mouse, James Richardson and Miles A. Robinson. Dave Fridmann chipped in on mixing duties.

Group members Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser said in a joint statement: "Mother Nature outlines the archetypal MGMT mythology of one hero attempting to get the other hero to come on the journey they ‘must’ go on. One part sounds like Oasis. Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.”

There’s no word yet on tour dates for MGMT, which is managed by Mark Kates and Dave Gottlieb. The band has only played one show since 2019, which came in May when it performed its 2007 breakthrough, Oracular Spectacular, at the Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena.

Photo: Jonah Freeman