Planning for Burial returns with the new single “YOU THINK,” taken from the upcoming full-length album It’s Closeness, It’s Easy, out May 30th on The Flenser.
Pre-order the album now on five vinyl variants, CD, cassette, and shirt designs featuring artwork by Foie Graphics.
The track arrives alongside a minimalist, emotionally resonant video that echoes the spirit of 1980s indie iconoclasts. Planning for Burial’s Thom Wasluck had this to say about the song and its accompanying visual:
“YOU THINK” is the oldest song on the record as it has already been a live staple for a number of years and the only one to survive the first attempt at making the album.
Musically, I wanted to push the idea of what I thought PFB could be—I wanted to have songs with more movement, upping the tempo and utilizing my voice a bit more than usual, while also trying to retain the smeared texture of guitars and synths.
The lyrics evolved a few times over the years, but the core of it is about making sense of everything after coming out of the blur of a years-long self-destruction party. My problems were of my own doing, and now I have to work to keep from falling back into the same pitfalls.
The video is inspired by, and in itself an homage to, the video for “Bastards Of Young” by The Replacements. The Mats were adverse to the idea of self-promotion in the video age—they just wanted to be a band. There’s parallels to that in today’s music business, where it’s often not good enough to just be an artist; you now have to play the role of content creator/influencer to appease the great algorithm just to get your music in front of people. It often feels anti-art.
I worked with friend and Minneapolis-based artist Alana Wool to come up with a concept that pulls from The Mats’ complete middle finger attitude—that was also a piece of art. To me, it really encompasses the feeling of angsty boredom, with my own memory of late nights drinking alone, shuffling around the house watching the hours/days/weeks/etc. peel away.”
[vinyl] [cd] [tape] [merch] [membership series]
