Atlanta’s cinematic psych-country duo Andrea & Mud have a knack for creating a song which will have you doing a wee shuffle and leave you with a big smile even if the lyrics addresses challenging times. A superb example is the title-track from their soon-to-be-release LP, Institutionalized. We’re thrilled to have the premiere of the track today ahead of its release on Thursday.
“Institutionalized” is a fun-filled journey, packed with horns, a booming bassline and breezy guitars. The craft behind the song gently creeps up on you, as you take a deep dive into the lyrics and admire the musicianship behind it.
It was born out of an argument during the depths of covid, with the confines of isolation taking it’s toll. It beautifully addresses the mental health challenges which were faced during those uncertain times. Mud sings “I’m committed / To loving you / I may have lost my marbles/ My screws are loose / The pain inside I can no / Longer hide / From the things you’ve done to me / I’m Institutionalized /Won’t you set me free”.
It’s a joyous rollocking ride, celebrating love in the face of adversity. Give it a few spins and you’ll appreciate the kick-arse horn section, so sweetly complementing the jaunty surf-rock guitar and the honky-tonk groove. It’s a stellar slice of country shuffle.
Andrea has shared with the AU her thoughts on “Institutionalized”:
“Well, it definitely doesn’t sound like the love song that Mud claims it is. It’s such a fun, upbeat, all over the place song. I mean, we’ve got a straight up honky tonk shuffle tied together with a wild surf part with horns. This song is so us. And Mud is pretty committed to me so I guess it actually may be a love song.
This is such a clever song. We’ve got all kinds of words that describe feeling a little unwell and being in love at the same time. My favorite line is probably “There ain’t no glamour in this life in the rubber room.”
“Institutionalized” was largely inspired by Porter Wagoner’s song “The Rubber Room” which was very ahead of its time and experimental for such a classic country star. I love all of the lyrics in this one though! Quite an image behind them.
We got to have a horn section on this song which was so much fun for us in the studio. We had only worked with one horn player in the studio previously, the wonderful Chad Paulin, who played the trumpet on “Bad News Darlin’.” This time we got some fellas who play with Blair Crimmins. It was Justin Powell, Jonathan Lloyd and Chris Otts. They are awesome! Justin wrote the parts in the studio with us. We asked them to bring out the mariachi vibes with everything they played and they killed it. We were kind of like, what would Johnny Cash do back in the day? Horns really add a lot to a recording. Definitely gonna need to have a horn section on every album now.”
Not to be left out, Kyle “Mud” Moseley gives us his take on the track:
“‘Institutionalized” sounds like multiple personalities of Red Simpson backed by the Bakersfeild Brass.
The lyric, “Bananas and nuts taste better day after day,” comments on going through the same issues in life and coming up with adequate solutions only for them to be rejected time and time again.
This song more or less came to me as an extension of our song “Birmingham, AL 8:30 AM” from our last album Bad News Darlin’. I took the longest word I could think of and made a song out of it, while writing an upbeat song about the dark duality of modern relationship norms. I like the idea of expressing dark concepts on happy sounding music. I was listening to a lot of dark old country songs. Check out the covers on this album.”
Upcoming Andrea & Mud Tour dates
For our friends in the US, Andrea & Mud have the following shows booked. Get along if you can!
