American Football Releases "Bad Moons" from LP4

American Football, the influential Midwest emo band, released their new single "Bad Moons" on Thursday, marking the first preview of their fourth studio album, simply titled LP4. The eight-minute track, out now via Polyvinyl Records, blends playful and brooding elements into a sprawling epic, ahead of the full album's arrival on May 1.

The song originated as two separate demos that the band members had shared over time, according to frontman Mike Kinsella. One featured lighthearted sounds like children playing and toy pianos, while the other included intense guitars and pounding drums. Kinsella described the creative process in a statement: "Bad Moons is actually a Frankenstein of two different demos we'd been passing around for quite a while. I had already been singing the 'in the dark' mantra over the latter, so the biggest challenge for me was thematically bridging the innocence and buoyancy of the first act with the deep despair of the second. I decided to begin the song as a child. Or, rather two. Stacked up in a single trenchcoat secretly, reluctantly living the life of a grown man, accruing all of his missteps and guilt along the way. By the end, these missteps are...