It’s not easy to make sense of the latest song from Foxygen. One minute, “America” is lurching orchestral pop, complete with dramatic strings and woodwinds. The next, it’s a melancholy piano piece, followed by a sudden shift to oddball jazz punctuated by bursts of noise and orchestrated chaos. It’s an epic, head-spinning collision of sounds worthy of multiple listens. “If you’re already there, then you’re already dead,” the Los Angeles duo sings. “If you’re living in America.” Sam France and Jonathan Rado recorded the song with a 34-piece orchestra. It’s their first new music since 2014’s sprawling …And Star Power.
New Music United 