Mr Twin Sister Share New Single “Alien FM”

Mr Twin Sister have shared “Alien FM,” the second single off their forthcoming album Salt, out Oct. 25 through Twin Group. Salt is the band’s first album since 2014’s Mr Twin Sister.

“Alien FM” teases out the elastic funk that coursed through the band’s previous work, stretching out the sound until it becomes something more aligned with blackened lounge music. The burbling bass line that infected songs like “Poor Relations” and “Power of Two” now lumbers in the background while a melancholy sax tumbles and turns around frontwoman Andrea Estella’s opaque vocals. The song does indeed end up sounding like an intergalactic transmission of FM jazz.

The theme of alien-ness seems to have become a touchstone for Estella in the writing of Salt. The first single “Tops and Bottoms” touched on the othering effects of objectification, how a gaze can render your body as an object separate from you, rather than a part of you. “Alien FM” considers the way a romantic connection grows stale, and how the person you loved can become a stranger in their attempts to distance themsevles. The song’s most telling verse comes near the end: “I can never tell just what you’re always thinking of but / It’s not me, repeatedly you’re / calling from a train / or some other place / You lean our love on these with grace/ ‘Oh, I’m gonna lose you, I’m headed for the tunnel where we lose connection’.” The transmission is communication, and the source is unrecognizable.

Mr Twin Sister will be touring through November. Find the full list of dates further down.