LA producer Jonathan Wilson is a master of swirling, psychedelic, string-soaked hi-fi odysseys, and he’s been of crucial assistance on records from Father John Misty and Angel Olsen. Wilson also makes his own records as a singer-songwriter, and he’s about to release the new solo album Eat The Worm. We’ve already posted the early tracks “Marzipan” and “Charlie Parker,” and now Wilson has also shared “The Village Is Dead.”
The Village of “The Village Is Dead” is Greenwich Village — specifically the area around Washington Square Park, which no longer stands as the countercultural hub that it once was. On the track, Wilson sings over propulsive acoustic guitars and a string arrangement so jaunty that it’s at least disco-adjacent. Over that lush instrumentation, he laments what Lower Manhattan has become: “There’s nothing doing anymore on MacDougal Street / Just shit tons of bros from the local university.”
The video for “The Village Is Dead” uses fucked-up AI images of how Washington Square Park might’ve once looked. Check it out below.
Eat The Worm is out 9/8 on BMG. Pre-order it here.