It was a Yeah Yeah Yeahs-less decade, but Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase have returned all up in their feels and we’re absolutely here for it. Where the Perfume Genius-featured “Spitting On The Edge Of The World,” called attention to the harsh reality of living frivolously at the cost of our environment, the newly released “Burning” is about preserving that which we individually love most.
The song has a cinematic string arrangement over a classic soul-inspired thump and affecting keys. It further builds anticipation for the impending release of their new album, Cool It Down, on September 10th.
“If the world is on fire I hope the most beloved stay protected and that we do all we can to protect what we cherish most in this life,” Karen O said in a statement. She also talked about the creation and meaning of “Burning,” and she got deep:
“Back when I was 19 living in the East Village, one night a roommate dragged me out of the apartment for an impromptu drink across the street, I left a votive candle burning on a plastic yaffa block which in my absence set flame to my room. Within an hour and a half of having one drink down the block firefighters had come and gone extinguishing the fire, I came home to find that a natural disaster had occurred (to my room) and most of my stuff, lost in the flames. All electronic goods were melted and demolished like my laptop, cameras etc. but oddly enough the items that held the most sentimental value remained intact like sketchbooks, a favorite sweater with hearts across the chest, and photographs. I had photos of my parents in their youth where the fire burnt around the two of them as if there was some intangible force field protecting them, many photos like that, mysteriously leaving the beloved subjects untouched.
If the world is on fire I hope the most beloved stay protected and that we do all we can to protect what we cherish most in this life. ‘Burning’ is a song about that feeling, smoke signals for the soul. Begging to cool it down, just doing it the best we know how. Nick and I nodded to Frankie Valli’s ‘Begging’, with the line ‘oooh lay your red hand on me baby.’ We’ve cut a rug to many a soulful sixties bangers in our day, it was in our DNA by the time we wrote ‘Burning.’”
Listen to “Burning” above.
Cool It Down is out 9/30 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.