Today, Alt-Rock icons Better Than Ezra announce the forthcoming release of their tenth studio album Super Magick — their first full-length in ten years— as first shared in an exclusive with American Songwriter. Due out May 3 via Round Hill Records, Super Magick is available for pre-order/pre-save now. To celebrate the album announcement, the New Orleans-bred band are premiering the latest single from Super Magick, an exhilarating anthem called “Live A Little.” Go here to listen to “Live A Little” and watch the visualizer here.
Mainly produced by BTE singer/guitarist Kevin Griffin and Emery Dobyns (a producer/songwriter/engineer known for his work with Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and Antony and the Johnsons), Super Magick is a prime showcase for the soul-searching yet sharp-witted songwriting that have made the band one of the most enduring acts to emerge from the ’90s Alt-Rock boom. In the latest creative triumph for the four-piece — whose lineup also includes bassist Tom Drummond, drummer Michael Jerome Moore, and guitarist/keyboardist James “Jim” Arthur Payne Jr. — the album expands on their classic sound and explores elements of everything from Country-Rock and Britpop to New Wave and Dub. Recorded at Tennessee’s Pink Deer Studio, the result is a heartfelt and wildly fun body of work that fully lives up to its title.
“In many ways music is one of the closest things to magic, in terms of how it can affect and transport you,” says Griffin. “Now more than ever, we’re aware that we’re creating songs that could become part of the fabric of other people’s lives, and it’s something we appreciate in a much deeper way than we first started out.”
Written by Griffin, Steve Aiello (30 Seconds to Mars), and Chaz McKinney (aka Chaz Cardigan), “Live A Little” brings Super Magick’s boundless joie de vivre to a euphoric reflection on seizing the day. With its pummeling bassline, radiant gang vocals, and frenetic guitar work, the breakneck-paced track hits like an adrenaline rush while delivering so much wisdom straight from the heart. And in a shining example of his singular lyrical gifts, Griffin spikes the song’s unfiltered confession with plenty of playful metaphor (from the first verse: “I got a million things to do/I got so much I wanna prove/But life is like a Rubik’s cube and/I’m stuck and I don’t know which way to move”).
Produced by Griffin, Aiello, and Brennan Aerts, “Live A Little” is already a hit with fans at BTE’s high-energy live show, including a massive run of headlining dates last year. “It’s one of those rare songs where the music and the melody definitely match the message, which is essentially ‘carpe diem’,” Griffin says in speaking to the track’s immediate appeal. “The longer you live, the more you realize how fragile life is — nothing is a given, and every day is a gift.”
In addition to “Live A Little,” Super Magick features Better Than Ezra’s recent singles “Mystified” (an undeniably catchy piece of true-to-life storytelling that premiered last summer alongside its vintage-styled video) and “Contact High” (a charmingly tongue-in-cheek track recalling some of the Rolling Stones’ most fun-loving Country-flavored tunes).
Since forming in 1988 at Louisiana State University, Better Than Ezra have been on a rocket ride through the Rock world, definitively making their presence felt at every turn. The band exists in rare air among their peers, having occupied spots on Billboard’s “100 Greatest Alternative Songs of All Time” and “100 Greatest Alternative Artists of All Time.” Better Than Ezra was a prominent fixture on radio and MTV in the Nineties and early 2000’s, thanks in large part to the monumental success of their cherished 1993 independent album DELUXE, which included standout fan-favorite “Good” —
a MULTI-PLATINUM selling #1 hit on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks Chart.
