How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?
Big Red Machine Album | August 27, 2021
Paradoxically, Big Red Machine’s sprawling collective effort grew into something deeply personal. As Dessner and the other musicians put together the songs, largely remotely, themes coalesced: childhood memories, lost innocence, struggles with mental health. And after years of working in the background — with The National and as a producer for other songwriters — Dessner has stepped forward, for a few songs, as a lead singer.
«Establishing and contributing to a musical community matters so much to Aaron. He’s technically in the music ‘industry,’ but really all he wants to do is play and make music with his friends.»
Taylor Swift
Table of Contents
Background and Recording
«I think this was an intense growing period for me. I was learning so much from Taylor and the process. Along the way, I shared all of our unfinished Big Red Machine songs with her and she really found them inspiring and gave me so much positive feedback and encouragement. I think that helped me realize how connected this Big Red Machine music was to everything else I was doing and that I was always supposed to be chasing these ideas. I was finding new sounds and ways of working through these songs. I just hadn’t been able to finish them. So, I did.»
Aaron Dessner
Aside from Taylor, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? boasts additional guest vocal and writing contributions from Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold (“Phoenix”), multiple Tony winner Anaïs Mitchell (“Latter Days”, “New Auburn”), Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Nova (“Hutch,” a tribute to late Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison) and Naeem (“Easy To Sabotage”), plus orchestrations by Dessner’s twin brother and National bandmate Bryce:
«For me to feel like something deserves to exist, it needs to feel emotion. I try to give voice to some deeply felt feeling or sentiment, and that often conjures a scene for people to write to. I think that’s why I’ve had these amazing relationships with different songwriters.»
Aaron Dessner
Taylor Picked the Album Title
That sense of shared experience extended to the new album’s title, which was coined by Taylor after Aaron Dessner told her he wasn’t sure what to call the new album:
«Intuitively summing up the themes, she suggested titling it 'How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,' a question which she pointed out could refer to multiple subjects addressed therein: childhood, family, marriages, a depression, a losing streak, a winning streak or a creative streak. Taylor saw it all so clearly.»
Aaron Dessner
Critical Reception
Artist | Big Red Machine |
---|---|
Released | August 27, 2021 |
Recorded | 2018–2021 |
Studio | April Base (Fall Creek) Kitty Committee (Los Angeles) Long Pond (Hudson Valley) |
Genre | Alternative |
Length | 64:38 |
Label | 37DO3D Jagjaguwar |
Producer | Aaron Dessner |
- 1. Latter Days
- 2. Reese
- 3. Phoenix
- 4. Birch
- 5. Renegade
- 6. The Ghost of Cincinnati
- 7. Hoping Then
- 8. Mimi
- 9. Easy to Sabotage
- 10. Hutch
- 11. 8:22AM
- 12. Magnolia
- 13. June's A River
- 14. Brycie
- 15. New Auburn