Released August 6, 2013 Genre Psychedelic rock Label Columbia | Format Digital Download Length 2:04 | |
Writer(s) Andrew VanWyngarden, Ben Goldwasser | ||
"Your Life Is a Lie" is the second single released from the third album by MGMT, which was released as an instant download with the album pre-order on August 6, 2013.
Contents
It is also the first time that the band has used a hashtag to promote any single; in recent posts on their social networks, the hashtag "#YLIAL" can be seen, acronym for the title of the song.
In an interview with XFM, VanWyngarden explained the meaning behind of this song: "Your Life Is a Lie in particular was never meant to be directed at our fans or anybody in particular. What it's meant for more is to be utilized as a kind of weapon that you can direct towards whoever you want and it's supposed to be an empowering song."
History
The band first premiered the song live at the Portland State Theater on April 30, and was later performed on following shows through North America as their spring 2013 tour.
In the July 2013 issue of NME magazine, the song is explained as "a burst of clattering, misanthropic buzz-pop vitriol"; while Relix Magazine explains it as a "lyrically dark song". In this same interview, VanWyngarden explains that he wrote the song "while tripping hard on acid by a fire".
On August 5, the band premiered the music video for this song, which was directed by Tom Kuntz; the promotion of the video it's accompanied with an interactive kaleidoscopic video embedded on their official website. A day after, the single was given as a free download with the album pre-order on iTunes.
On the August 22 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, the band appeared and performed the song. On August 28, Pitchfork premiered a 'Sunroof Remix' of the song made by the Mute Records founder Daniel Miller, alongside the producer Gareth Jones.
Reception
Rolling Stone listed "Your Life is a Lie" as the 98th-best song of the year, calling it "a two-minute skull-boring pop nugget that makes the title's argument with such ear-wormy power."