Shangri-La

VINYL FORMAT. Shangri-La is YACHT's second album for DFA Records and the follow-up to their critically acclaimed full-length, See Mystery Lights. Shangri-La is the duo's most thematically ambitious work to date; it showcases an exponential evolution in their songwriting and ability to produce sharp, surreal hooks. "Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)" offers a glimpse into Shangri-La; YACHT, consisting of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, describe the song as an "apocalyptic fight song, a cautionary tale, a science-fiction story for our particular eco-sociopolitical landscape."

The lyrical themes of "Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)" are echoed throughout the conceptually unified Shangri-La. As opposed to the meditative, mantra-esque quality of See Mystery Lights, Shangri-La is a narrative work. The album explores mankind's eternal pursuit of Utopia with compelling pop melodies, fiercely druggy grooves and YACHT's endlessly diverse canon of influences – some musical, but largely not – as the soundtrack. In its essence, the message here is that the future is a blank slate upon which anything can be imposed. Shangri-La is literally YACHT's idea of Utopia: a place made of songs.

Never a band to stay in one place sonically, visually, or philosophically, YACHT have transformed themselves, recording in a studio for the very first time and opting to use more live instrumentation, in addition to electronics, than ever before. Locked in a studio in the West Texas desert without an engineer, the kaleidoscope of genres they manifested together ranges from disco to psychedelia, from krautrock to punk, culminating in pure pop.