Fresh from an official showcase at SXSW, David Wax Museum release their new single ‘Best Lover’ taken from their upcoming new album You Must Change Your Life to be released May 5 on Nine Mile Records.

‘Best Lover’ is about unrequited love, or the relationship that had so much potential, but never quite materialized. As singer David Wax sings: “Never had the chance to see if this love existed / Never had the chance for things to get ugly and twisted.” The production of this song is massive, with timpani, tubular bells, upright bass, and other orchestral flourishes; a modern twist on Phil Specter's "Wall of Sound" approach.

Today’s offering swiftly followes the release of the title track; the song opening like a portal, whirring to life with a disembodied voice. The line “You must change your life” is that of Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Here, Wax responds to the doctrine; he tallies up a range of ways to alter life—some banal, others extreme—crossing out each choice at the ends of his musical phrases.

WATCH: "YOU MUST CHANGE YOUR LIFE"

LISTEN TO 'BEST LOVER' ON APPLE MUSIC

LISTEN TO 'BEST LOVER' ON SPOTIFY

Wax shares “Rilke's exhortation ("You must change your life") has always moved me quite powerfully. In the poem, "Archaic Torso of Apollo," a headless sculpture "sees" inside the poet and stirs him so deeply that he cannot go on living like he was before.

While the phrase captures the change that can come through witnessing art, I realized I needed to bring this lofty idea down to earth through a specific character at a specific moment in time, and so I created a sympathetic fool in a mid-life crisis. I believe many of us face a version of the same plight at the heart of the song. We populate our lives with these hip, modern amenities (frilly Western shirts, macrobiotic diets, pour over coffee, Epsom salt baths), but once these accoutrements lose their shine, it’s hard to know what to do when stuck in the rat race of paying our bills while the ice caps melt and the tiki torches of the alt-right keep us up at night.

In answer to this quandary, I wanted this song to be an anthemic call for self-reexamination and taking charge of one’s life because, despite it all, I believe, "It's never too late."

The vividly commanding title of David Wax Museum’s band’s 9th studio album—You Must Change Your Life—is a truth the married duo David Wax and Suz Slezak hold sacred. In late 2022, Wax suffered a sudden and inexplicable collapse. Headed for a heart catheterization in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri, his doctors suspecting a heart attack, he hurriedly signed his name to a waiver—and was struck by a revelation. “Lying there on that stretcher the thing that kept running through my mind was: at least we made You Must Change Your Life,” Wax recalls. “Whatever else happened, I felt at peace because this record exists.” Read the full album bio here.

David Wax Museum’s vibrancy has been globally recognized by the highest tier tastemakers. Since their early breakout as a buzz band at the revered Newport Folk Festival, Wax and Slezak have transmitted their kinetic energy in platforms including CBS This Morning: Saturday, Tiny Desk Concert, and NPR’s World Cafe. They have soundtracked love stories on and off screens, from the Netflix #1 show Firefly Lane to the wedding of US Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. The band have drawn praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and TIME for what NPR called "pure, irresistible joy” and The Guardian described as "global crossover at its best,” David Wax Museum have toured the world, often with their two young children in tow, sharing stages with The Avett Brothers, Los Lobos, The Wood Brothers, Old 97’s, Buena Vista Social Club, Guster, Josh Ritter, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Watchhouse among others.

David Wax Museum announce new album You Must Change Your Life (May 5) | New single "Best Lover" out now

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