| Your Life Is a Lie | |
| Cover: | Your Life Is A Lie.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | MGMT |
| Album: | MGMT |
| Released: | August 6, 2013 |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Length: | 2:04 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Prev Title: | Alien Days |
| Prev Year: | 2013 |
| Next Title: | Cool Song No. 2 |
| Next Year: | 2013 |
"Your Life Is a Lie" is the second single released from the third album by MGMT, which was released as an instant download with the album pre-order on August 6, 2013.[1]
In an interview with XFM, VanWyngarden explained the meaning behind of this song: "'Your Life Is a Lie' in particular was never meant to be directed at our fans or anybody in particular. What it's meant for more is to be utilized as a kind of weapon that you can direct towards whoever you want and it's supposed to be an empowering song."[2]
The band first premiered the song live at the Portland State Theater on April 30, and was later performed on following shows through North America as their spring 2013 tour.[3]
In the July 2013 issue of NME magazine, the song is explained as "a burst of clattering, misanthropic buzz-pop vitriol";[4] while Relix Magazine explains it as a "lyrically dark song". In this same interview, VanWyngarden explains that he wrote the song "while tripping hard on acid by a fire".[5]
On August 5, the band premiered the music video for this song, which was directed by Tom Kuntz;[6] the promotion of the video it's accompanied with an interactive kaleidoscopic video embedded on their official website.[7] A day after, the single was given as a free download with the album pre-order on iTunes.
On the August 22 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, the band appeared and performed the song. On August 28, Pitchfork premiered a 'Sunroof Remix' of the song made by Mute Records founder Daniel Miller, alongside producer Gareth Jones.[8]
Rolling Stone listed "Your Life is a Lie" as the 98th-best song of the year, calling it, "a two-minute skull-boring pop nugget that makes the title's argument with such ear-wormy power."[9]