SOPHOMORE SOLO LP PSYCHIC LESSONS RELEASING AUGUST 22 VIA LAST GANG / MNRK

ALBUM RELEASE PARTY SET FOR NYC’S RIPPLE ROOM ON AUGUST 22 + ROUGH TRADE IN-STORE ON SEPTEMBER 4

Today, Yeasayer co-founder Anand Wilder releases new single “Molly’s Song” from his upcoming LP Psychic Lessons, out 8/22 via Last Gang / MNRK. The track uses jaunty piano, a club-ready drum machine beat and Andean-style digital pan flutes to turn a domestic tale into an otherworldly tune. The swirling official video is also out today (below), which was directed by documentary filmmaker Derek Howard and finds Wilder clad in Bowie-esque makeup with liquid light visuals projected directly onto his face and body. 

Wilder will celebrate with an album release party + show at The Ripple Room in the Lower East Side on August 22 followed by a Rough Trade in-store performance and signing at the Brooklyn location on September 4. 

Listen to “Molly’s Song”

Watch the official video for “Molly’s Song” via YouTube

Pre-save/pre-order Psychic Lessons

On the song, Wilder shares: “My favorite song on the album…This is probably the most direct and honest love song on the album, no personas standing in, just self-analysis inspired by a protracted lover’s quarrel, where you can see certain patterns of behavior are looping, and even though you know that a little tenderness would alleviate the anger, it’s the last thing you feel like doing in the heat of the battle. I think of myself as pretty easy going, but when I cross a certain threshold my instinct is to escalate, get defensive and dig in my heels.

So then the chorus is the flip side, when you’re completely in sync and reconnecting, the depression and anger has miraculously dissipated, you’re out of the impossible loop and you are filled with love and have clarity to reflect on all your stubborn tendencies as foolish and counterproductive. But how do you get out of the irregular loop to reach this love and clarity?” 

Director Derek Howard adds: “The concept for ‘Molly's Song’ came from a shared love of liquid light visuals that were really common low-fi concert visuals in the 1960s and ‘70s. People would use overhead projectors and Petri dishes with different-colored solutions to cast these psychedelic visuals directly onto the bands, bathing them in a kaleidoscope of morphing colors. ‘Molly's Song’ contains themes of drugs so we felt it would be an appropriate homage to those retro stoner visuals that are so strongly associated with altered states and rock and roll.” 

From the album, Wilder has already shared the fuzzy meditation on mortality “Bog People”, which garnered excitement from Stereogum, and first single “Appointment in Samarra” and its kaleidoscopic music video, directed by Jordan Fish (MGMT, Chairlift) that was featured at BrooklynVegan, who called it “as hallucinatory as the song itself.” Those songs, along with the entire LP, were co-produced by Wilder and lauded multi-instrumentalist Jachary (L’Rain, Tasha). The duo brought on Walter Fancourt (a guest saxophonist on Yeasayer’s Amen & Goodbye) to help write and record, creating what Wilder refers to as a “DIY Compass Point Studios” – the historic Bahamas recording studio where Grace Jones, Brian Eno and Talking Heads made some of their best-known material. 

The collaborative nature of the LP resulted in a record that mixes genres like chillwave, psych-pop, reggae and country to create a wholly original sound rooted in the synthetic palettes of the 1980s. Thematically, the songs teeter from the small troubles of personal life to explorations in mythology and ancient history and character-driven satires of contemporary life. 

The upcoming album follows his 2022 solo debut, I Don’t Know My Words, which – comparatively – found Wilder taking the spiritual exercise of going solo seriously. Stripping his songcraft down to the studs, he recorded every note himself. The hard work paid off, earning praise from Stereogum, NPR Music, Consequence and many more. Since then, he’s released the 2023 ambient album Cannibalizing The Conductor and two tracks with Maia Friedman celebrating Last Gang Records' 20th anniversary. He’s also kept busy touring throughout the US and performing DJ sets at the Crown Heights bar King Tai. Most recently, he performed two sold-out shows at Brooklyn’s Sultan Room with Delicate Steve. Stay up to date on Anand Wilder tour dates at anandwilder.com. 

PRE-ORDER "PSYCHIC LESSONS" HERE