Starting at 9 AM EDT today, the new Shearwater album The Great Awakening—our first in six years—will be available for pre-order here. A limited number of signed 180-gram vinyl 2xLPs and CDs can also be found for sale on our Bandcamp page.
The album will be officially released in digital, CD, and standard-weight 2xLP formats on June 10th, through all the usual channels—and of course, we’re always happiest if you order it through your local record store (it’s been a rough couple of years for them).
At nearly an hour, The Great Awakening is certainly the longest Shearwater album, and friends have said it might also be the best. We’ve never worked harder on one. It’s lush and strange, and a feast for your ears—and to me, at least, it evokes older versions of the band even as it goes places we haven’t been before.
Many of you supported the campaign that funded the album’s production, for which we’re more than grateful. Shaping it with producer/engineer Dan Duszynski helped keep us all saner in the long months of 2020-21, and the thought that we were making something other people wanted to hear helped us feel (much) less alone.
2) Live shows?
Once upon a time, an announcement like this would come with tour dates. That’s not the world we’re in right now, alas, but we’re looking at options for some kind of live performance(s) within the next year. We’ll keep you posted.
3) First single, “Xenarthran,” and a video
The Great Awakening‘s first single, “Xenarthran,” premieres on YouTube, also at 9AM Eastern today. It was filmed and directed by our friend Emily Cross (of Loma and Cross Record).
4) Paperback Writer
Lastly: my book, A Most Remarkable Creature, was just released in paperback by Vintage in the US and UK. I’m proud to say that it restores an end-parenthesis that snuck out of the hardcover edition when I wasn’t looking, and that it has 100% more Ecuador labeled on the map of South America. (I’ve also started work on a new book—but that’s a story for another day.) You can learn more and find links to order it here.
