Little Dark Age (song)
"Little Dark Age" is a song by American rock band MGMT. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, "Little Dark Age", on October 17, 2017, through Columbia Records. In an interview with Newsweek, the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter for the band stated that 80's Soviet synth-pop 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. The song was released with an accompanying music video. Artwork. The cover art for the single is taken directly from a work of Japanese manga artist Suehiro Maruo. In the text-bubble, the character states the following: "Oh, OK. It's bad to ask for something without offering something in return. So I will show you some magic. No tricks here. I call this 'Discovery of Africa.'" Critical reception. "Little Dark  Age" received generally positive reviews from critics. Writing for "Spin", 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." In late 2020, it experienced a resurgence in popularity due to a viral TikTok trend where hundreds of thousands utilized the song. 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-esque". As of February 2022, the video has been viewed over 67 million times through the band's official Vevo account on YouTube.