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Mar 26, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Julia Brokaw

Xiu Xiu have released a new album of duets, OH NO, today via Polyvinyl. In honor of release day they have shared a new video for the album’s “Sad Mezcalita,” which features Sharon Van Etten (who also cameos in the video). Watch it below. Also stream the entire new album below.

The band’s Angela Seo directed the mysterious black & white video.

The band’s Jamie Stewart had this to say about “Sad Mezcalita” in a press release: “Angela said to me, ‘you never write love songs.’ This song tried to do that and failed. To me, it became about how the fear of someone you love being killed or kidnapped or lost in the desert leads to a possessed certainty of those very fates. Wanting and needing and actually feeling love for someone when you know all along that it will end in the worst way imaginable. Sharon seemed like the only person I knew who could pull this conflict off without hesitation. The title is taken from a line in the Otis Redding song ‘I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,’ which is a love song that did not fail in its intent, but is still sad.”

When OH NO was announced back in January, the band shared the song “A Bottle of Rum,” which features Liz Harris and was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared the album’s second single, “Rumpus Room,” which featured Angus Andrew of Liars and was also one of our Songs of the Week. The album also features Chelsea Wolfe, George Lewis Jr. of Twin Shadow, Owen Pallett, Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater and Loma, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, and others.

Of the album as a whole, Stewart said in a previous press release: “The guest stars of OH NO reflect the types of people, and many of the very same, who helped remind me that the ratio of beautiful humans to shitty humans is more like 60/40 rather than what I have always assumed was 1/99. Although there is an ‘I HATE PEOPLE’ pin on my guitar strap, I hate them less now.”

OH NO is the follow-up to 2019’s Girl with Basket of Fruit and 2017’s FORGET.

Read our 16th Annual Artist Survey interview with Xiu Xiu.

Earlier this week Sharon Van Etten shared a Shamir cover of “Dsharpg,” taken from her Ten album. The new cover is the fourth song release from her upcoming anniversary album, epic Ten, which will be out on April 16 via Ba Da Bing.

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