Art rockers Dirty Projectors have been frustratingly silent since 2012. After releasing their best album, Swing Lo Magellan, and touring the world, the band went off the grid. That’s not to say frontman and songwriter David Longstreth did nothing in the meantime — he stayed busy co-writing co-writing No. 1s with Rihanna and repping Bernie in the Big Ten.
And, as we now know, he was also working on new Dirty Projectors songs.
Out of nowhere last month, “Keep Your Name” and its video were dropped. And that was about it… no accompanying album data, just the wonderful, sensory assault of a track. “Keep Your Name” starts half Dave, half robot. Longstreth takes his tender vocal and pitches it down to a robotic drawl. Over a mechanical drum track and some sparse piano chords, he paints heartbreaking pictures of a breakup. Longstreth later raps about Gene Simmons. It’s a trip and a damn good song. Experience it below and let’s all pray for an album.