Matt Berninger has put out Type It Up without warning, a six-track EP that gathers up the loose ends of the year rather than starting a new one. The National's singer had released Martini Me Fatso over the summer, and Stereogum treats the EP as the capstone on the era that began with last year's album Get Sunk.
The title track got its name by accident, and Berninger tells the story himself. The song was originally called Black Letter Font, after a line in the chorus, and he says audiences kept hearing the lyric as something involving a black leather thong instead. He swapped the chorus rather than fight it, and added that he is more of a black linen suit guy.
The songs came out of the road rather than a studio block. Berninger says they grew from the momentum of the Get Sunk tour, where he was changing lyrics and song forms night after night and reading audience reaction in real time, including from social media comments.
Two of the six are covers with their own histories. Blue Monday, the New Order song, came out this year as an Amazon Music Original, and the Velvet Underground's Who Loves the Sun first appeared on the Australian television show Sunny Nights. Rosanne Cash sings on the latter, which is the guest credit the first reports of this release missed entirely.
The full running order is Martini Me Fatso, Type It Up, Ask for Water, Blue Monday and Who Loves the Sun, with a live acoustic version of Martini Me Fatso recorded in Australia added to the vinyl. Chris Sgroi made the video for Ask for Water, the only wholly new song on it besides the title track.
Releasing it as a surprise fits what the thing is. An EP of two new songs, two previously issued covers and a live take is not an album campaign, and putting it out with no notice is an honest description of its scale rather than an attempt to inflate it.
New Order's own year has been busier than usual, and we covered one date in their December show in Buenos Aires. The EP joins the autumn's other indie releases on the release calendar.
The facts
- Matt Berninger surprise-released the six-track EP Type It Up.
- It includes Martini Me Fatso, Type It Up and Ask for Water.
- It also carries covers of New Order's Blue Monday and Who Loves the Sun.
- Rosanne Cash sings on the Velvet Underground cover.
- A live acoustic Martini Me Fatso is a vinyl-only track.
- Chris Sgroi directed the Ask for Water video.
- Berninger renamed the title track after audiences misheard its chorus.
- Stereogum ties the EP to last year's album Get Sunk.
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