so i guess paul belbusti is just great at everything he does. when he’s not making music as mercy choir, he’s busy making fantastic visual art and lovely poetry. and this week, belbusti announced not only that he was working on a new album, but that the album — upturned in everest — was finished and set for release on august 16th. like with many previous mercy choir records, belbusti wrote, performed, and recorded the vast majority of upturned in everest. along with the announcement of the album came the first single: “do you know what i mean?”.
“do you know what i mean?” is, in some ways, a departure for mercy choir. the song is openly a pop anthem, complete with hand-claps and calls to sing along. mercy choir has never shied away from that approach necessarily, with many previous songs filling out a similar rock-oriented style, but this feels like a (welcome) change. mercy choir sounds like… spoon? sign me up, please. belbusti has seemingly always been influenced by robert pollard (and not just in the rate of his musical output, ha!), but this might be the closest he’s sounded to guided by voices.
and let’s just assume that you don’t have a pulse, and you aren’t grabbed by the impossible-to-resist melody and rhythm. if that’s the case, the lyrics’ll get you, with belbusti breaking the fourth wall in the first line of the song, and then breaking the fifth wall (?) shortly after that. and just a minute later, he’s presenting an image of: “little richard in a wheelchair / no makeup and no hair / giving a semon on a / christian youtube channel where” over an electric organ (i think). for a tune that is ostensibly an uptempo call-and-response pop song, it’s having a lot of meta-textual fun.
as reported by ct scramble, the upcoming upturned in everest was written and recorded over the past year with contributions from erik elligers (sax / flute), kierstin sieser of tiny ocean (vocals), and lys guillorn (vocals). you can pre-order upturned in everest (or order it, if you are reading this in the future) here.
