Bog Witch is back with another thought-provoking, surreal, and borderline psychedelic song: “Mr. Fly”. It was released on October 1, 2025, and it’s everything we’ve come to expect from Bog Witch. It has whimsy, dark humor, and a groove that captures that retro ’70s aesthetic really well. There’s a raw energy here that feels both vintage and immediate, like stumbling into a basement show in 1977.
Musically, it’s very fun and addictive to listen to with harmonies weaving in and out of that rhythm section built on bass, drums, ukulele, and tasteful saxophone lines. The instrumentation choices are deliberately unconventional, swapping electric guitar for ukulele gives the track an unexpected brightness that contrasts beautifully with its darker themes. It’s what Wendy DuMond (The Secret Identity of Bog Witch) describes as a retro pop pulse.
Where it really shines, and this applies to all of Bog Witch‘s work, is the lyrical and thematic content. Here, the lyrics are a nod to Emily Dickinson’s reflections on mortality. In a genius way, our own lives are compared to a fly’s life. We are just as fragile and mortal as they are, and sometimes just as unaware of our inevitable demise, just buzzing around unencumbered.
“Mr. Fly” is a great artistic endeavor of a song. It’s got the humor of an absurd Frank Zappa song, but in a retro-pop arrangement and groove. I think that stylistic choice makes it more charming than absurd. The accompanying video, shot in Atlanta with the band sporting fly masks, pushes the concept even further into surreal territory. Bog Witch continues her streak of delivering these golden nuggets of entertaining psychedelia, and I’m all for it.
