Single Review: Dirty Projectors – About to Die

Opening on the pitter-patter of gently grooving percussion and incisively chiming guitar chords, ‘About to Die’ is vintage Dirty Projectors through and through. The second single taken from their sixth full-length – July’s critically lauded Swing Lo Magellan – it sees bandleader and vocalist Dave Longstreth ponder the inherent inevitabilities of our fleeting mortality to a musical backdrop that’s surely too upbeat and bouncy for its grave subject matter.

It’s an effective juxtaposition, though. You’ll probably never hear someone sing “your life must be ending and trembling, you realise you never lived a day at all” against such buoyant music, but therein lies the magic at the heart of ‘About to Die’: it’s all about finding acceptance, pride and love in a wasted life – a triptych of sustenance in a shuffled existence.

An endearing consideration of romance and death, ‘About to Die’ is aided immeasurably by the fact its catchiness verges on the infectious; standard territory for a Dirty Projectors single nowadays. It’s one for the head, the heart and the ears in equal measure.

By Alex Cull

Check out the BBM Dance Music Podcast mixed by So Called Scumbags.