"Little Dark Age" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

MGMT MGMT () is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, Ben Goldwasser. Originally signed to Cantora Records by the nascent ...

. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''

Little Dark Age ''Little Dark Age'' (abbreviated as ''LDA'') is the fourth studio album by the American rock band MGMT, released on February 9, 2018, through Columbia Records. It was the band's first album of new material in over four years, after the release ...

'', on October 17, 2017, through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. In an interview with ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', Andrew VanWyngarden, the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter for the band stated that 1980s

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

was influential to the song.

Release

Leading up to the song's release, the band made several posts on their social media hyping up the album and then upcoming single. On October 12, 2017, the band posted a video clip of the beginning instrumental of the song to their social media with the caption "#LittleDarkAge". "Little Dark Age" was released as a digital single on October 17 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. The song was released with an accompanying music video.

Artwork

The cover artwork for the single features a panel from a work by Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

artist

Suehiro Maruo is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and painter. Biography Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15, he moved to Tokyo and began working for a bookbinder. At 17, he made h ...

. In the text-bubble, the character states the following: "I call this 'Discovery of Africa.'"

Critical reception

"Little Dark Age" received generally positive reviews from critics. Writing for ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'', Jeremy Gordon called the song "grim and playful". He said the song and video were "dark, but only a little, and the vibe feels appropriate for where they are now—older, and without office jobs, but recognizant of what's still gone wrong."

Music video

The music video for "Little Dark Age", directed by David MacNutt and Nathaniel Axel, premiered on October 17, 2017. The video was considered out of character and surprisingly gothic for the band. Jeremy Gordon of ''Spin'' called the video "

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

-esque". The cast includes, among others, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser along with New Zealand musician

Connan Mockasin Connan Tant Hosford, better known by the stage name Connan Mockasin, is a New Zealand musician, composer and record producer. Described as "a psych-funk oddball...a contrarian", Mockasin played a role in the contemporary crossover of Psychedeli ...

, ''Playboy'' Playmate

Hiromi Oshima is a Japanese glamour model. In June 2004, she became the second Japanese-born Playboy Playmate. Career Modeling Oshima was relocating to Miami Beach from Playa del Carmen, Mexico where she was living and working. Through a mutual acquaintanc ...

, and magician Kid Ace.

Resurgence and online usage

In late 2020, it experienced a resurgence in popularity due to a viral

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

trend where hundreds of thousands utilized the song. A report published in August 2021 by the

Institute for Strategic Dialogue The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is a political advocacy organization founded in 2006 by Sasha Havlicek and George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld and headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Activities ISD's core ...

found that "Little Dark Age" was "by far the most popular Sound among extremist creators on TikTok" and was central to videos promoting "

Hyperborea In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans (, ; ) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the Ecumene, known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek , "beyond Boreas (god), Boreas" (the God of the north wind). Some schol ...

and a wider trend of

esoteric Nazism Esoteric neo-Nazism, also known as esoteric Nazism, esoteric fascism or esoteric Hitlerism, represents a fusion of Nazi ideology with mystical, occult, and esoteric traditions. This belief system emerged in the aftermath of World War II, as ...

." The song has also been used to soundtrack clips of anime, superhero movies, video games,

Renaissance art Renaissance art (1350 – 1620) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occurr ...

as well as a wide range of social issues, including

transgender rights The legal status of transgender people varies greatly around the world. Some countries have enacted laws protecting the rights of transgender individuals, but others have criminalized their gender identity or expression. In many cases, transg ...

, the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

movement and the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. In 2024,

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis (born 13 September 1971) is an English journalist. He is the head Rock music, rock and pop music critic for ''The Guardian'', and a regular contributor for ''GQ''. In addition to his music journalism for the paper, he has written ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote: "Certainly its adoption doesn't say much for your average neo-Nazi's ability to understand English. Little Dark Age's lyrics are, fairly obviously, an excoriation of Trump-era America and racist police violence." On June 29, 2024, an election campaign advertisement using a slowed-down, unauthorized version of the song was posted to

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

of the United Kingdom

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

's X account, promoting the Conservative Party's stance on the British Military. The video was also posted to Sunak's account on Facebook, from which it was removed on July 1. The band has sent numerous takedown notices sent to X and a cease and desist letter sent to the Tories, but the video has not been removed from the site. On July 4 ( UK election day), MGMT responded to the Conservative Party's usage of the song in a statement to ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'': "How many times do we have to remind you jokers that this song is NOT fair game for your utter garbage? Let's all laugh at this dingus. Clock's ticking, mate. Happy Independence Day".

Credits

Andrew VanWyngarden Andrew Wells VanWyngarden (born February 1, 1983) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter for the band MGMT, praised for (according to ''Interview Magazine'') "an uncanny knack for producing pop music that s ...

– vocals, synthesizer, programming, producer *

Ben Goldwasser Benjamin Nicholas Hunter Goldwasser (born December 17, 1982) is an American songwriter and musician in the psychedelic rock band MGMT, for which he primarily plays keyboards and sings. In 2009, his song "Electric Feel" (co-written with bandmate ...

– synthesizer, programming, producer * James Richardson – additional bass guitar *

Patrick Wimberly Jonathan Patrick Wimberly (born May 29, 1983) is an American record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and mixing engineer best known as being one-half of the synth-pop duo Chairlift. The band parted ways in 2017 so Wimberly a ...

– producer *

Dave Fridmann David Lawrence Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. Career From 1990 onwards he co-produced most releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips. Other bands he has worked with include Weezer, Saxon Shore (band), Saxon Shore, Neon ...

– producer

Charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2017 singles 2017 songs Columbia Records singles MGMT songs Song recordings produced by Patrick Wimberly Songs written by Andrew VanWyngarden Songs written by Benjamin Goldwasser Internet memes introduced in 2020 Songs about depression Nationalism