Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

New Music Monday: Favored Nations

Terence Praet
By

new music monday favored nations cybele malinowski
The-Great-Unknown-Still-1500x1500-500x500If you played through Grand Theft Auto V‘s solo campaign, you have heard Favored Nations before. “The Setup” plays at the game’s end, and, thanks in part to that exposure, the song became a hit. It quickly gets caught in your ear, with a prominent backbeat steadily moving the music forward. Those who have not heard “The Setup” before will find it on Favored Nations’ debut album, The Great Unknown, out October 2nd via Antler Records.

Favored Nations The Setup Official Music Video

In the time since Grand Theft Auto‘s 2013 release, Favored Nations have worked on the above-mentioned debut album and refined their sound. KCRW, the popular LA-based radio station, premiered the music video for a new single, “Always,” earlier this summer. “Always” video is a study in contrast. The song is dynamic, groove-based, and danceable, standing out against the video’s content, grim clips from the film Cash Only.

Related Videos
Favored Nations - Always

Where the video and music complement one another perfectly is in the production. The clips from Cash Only in “Always” have a professional, cinematic quality to them, revealing the film’s status as a feature-length. Likewise, Favored Nations cite artists like The Beach Boys and Steely Dan as influences, and the production on songs like “Always” shows that the band has picked up more than a few things from the likes of Messrs. Wilson, Becker, and Fagen. There is a distinct element of studio technique to the record.

Favored Nations "Amazon" Music Video

With The Great Unknown Favored Nations offer simultaneously a worthy followup to their breakout single and a compelling debut itself.

Hear the album in full on Spotify.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
New Music Monday: Dawn Landes & Piers Faccini
new music monday dawn landes piers faccini amp press photo

 Desert Songs, the collaborative EP from Dawn Landes and Piers Faccini, has been a long-time coming. The two musicians first worked together on a track for Faccini's record Songs I Love. Afterward, Landes and Faccini performed together near the latter's home in southern France. Those two interactions convinced both artists that a collaboration would be fruitful, and a few months later they regrouped to record what would become Desert Songs.

With inspiration from the early Christian Desert Fathers and Sufi mysticism alike, the record Landes and Faccini have produced a delicate, ethereal record that still feels substantial. Landes and Faccini's voices float above a variety of instruments, including: kora, resonator guitar, and Indian dulcimer, among others.

Read more
New Music Monday: David Bowie
new music monday david bowie chicago 2002 08 photoby by adam bielawski

Editor's note: This post was written before we learned of the death of Mr. Bowie. Our condolences to his family. 

In 2013, David Bowie returned from a decade-long hiatus with The Next Day. The album was well-received critically and found Bowie back in the art-pop territory he has long found his own. Now, two years later, David Bowie is back with another new album, Blackstar. Even after 26 studio albums, Bowie has managed to make a record unique from all his others.

Read more
New Music Monday: Our Most Anticipated Albums of 2016
new music monday our most anticipated albums of 2016 vampire weekend

This week's New Music Monday is breaking format slightly by focusing not on a record that's come out recently, but on what's to come. Below you will find three artists whose records are some of our most anticipated albums for the coming year.

 

Read more