''About to Die'' is an

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

group

Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...

, released digitally and on vinyl on November 6, 2012.Minsker, Evan
Dirty Projectors Share "About to Die" Video, Announce New EP With New Tracks

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

. 20 September 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012.

Recording

The album's first track, "About to Die", is taken from Dirty Projectors' 2012 release ''

Swing Lo Magellan ''Swing Lo Magellan'' is the sixth studio album by American experimental rock group Dirty Projectors, which was released on Domino Records on July 10, 2012 in the United States and July 9, 2012 internationally.Minsker, EvanDirty Projectors Announ ...

''. Another track, "While You're Here", was written by Dave Longstreth following

TV on the Radio TV on the Radio (TVOTR) is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2001. The band consists of Tunde Adebimpe (vocals, loops), David Andrew Sitek (guitars, keyboards, loops), Kyp Malone (vocals, guitars, bass, loops), and Jale ...

bassist Gerard Smith's death in 2011.Battan, Carrie
Listen to Dirty Projectors' Tribute to Late TV on the Radio Member Gerard Smith: "While You're Here"

. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012.Longstreth, Dave
Tweet

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. 23 October 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2012.

Reception

''About to Die'' received general acclaim from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 74, based on 5 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".Critic Reviews for About to Die

. Retrieved 5 December 2012.

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

's Adam Kivel commented that ''About to Die'' "offers a bite-sized take of the entirety of ''Swing Lo Magellan''", adding that it "doesn’t outshine its older sibling, but it certainly acts as a logical and warm companion."

's Mike Powell called ''About to Die'' a "refreshingly basic album" and "a cherry on a cupcake" for Dirty Projectors.

Track listing

References

External links

Domino Records' page on ''About to Die''
{{Authority control 2012 EPs Domino Recording Company EPs Dirty Projectors albums