Widowspeak have announced their sixth studio album, The Jacket, to be released March 11th via Captured Tracks. Along with the announcement, the duo (singer-songwriter Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas) have shared the new single “Everything is Simple”. In the music video directed by OTIUM, Hamilton croons “learned to love the ropes when you were caught, see they could be braided a better way and sinking into nothing – you learn to stay” fittingly in front of bulls being wrangled at a rodeo.
Widowspeak said on “Everything is Simple”: “At the beginning of something (a relationship, a project, a job, a new place) you have this very pure feeling toward it. Everything feels less complicated because you’re oriented wholly toward that potential. It’s undefined, and that makes it easier to understand, because you can’t see the problems yet. As time goes on, you learn more, you experience more, and you see where the limitations exist: not even necessarily ones imposed upon you, but where you draw your own lines. Maybe you can’t see what was holding you back until it’s in the past, and by then others’ perspectives contradict your own. Everyone is constructing their own versions of reality. The song was originally going to feed into the drama of the imaginary band, but it’s about our own band too. I was thinking about how I’m an inherently unreliable narrator about my own life, and at the same time maybe there are no “true” stories.”
OTIUM said about the video: “The concept is centered around the idea of trying, knowing that even if things turn out differently than you intend, the very act itself is what you are striving to achieve.”
Listen to “Everything is Simple” and watch the video for it below:
Written in the months before and after the release of their 2020 album Plum, The Jacket feels like a full-circle moment for the duo. Thematically, it considers Plum’s broader questions about the values ascribed to one’s time and labor through the more refined lens of performance and music-making. This is due in part to the band’s recent return to New York City, the site of their own origin story, where they recorded The Jacket at the Diamond Mine with co-producer and noted Daptone Records affiliate Homer Steinweiss. In addition to Hamilton and Thomas on guitars, the album features founding drummer Michael Stasiak, as well as J.D. Sumner on bass, and piano and keyboard contributions from Michael Hess.
The Jacket artwork (by Andrea Smith) & tracklist:
1. While You Wait
2. Everything Is Simple
3. Salt
4. True Blue
5. The Jacket
6. Unwind
7. The Drive
8. Slow Dance
9. Forget It
10. Sleeper
After coming off of an Autumn 2021 US tour with Turnover, the duo have also announced a US headline tour this spring, as well as select dates with Clairo in Florida and Georgia. See all dates below:
WIDOWSPEAK 2022 TOUR DATES
4.7.22 – New York, NY – Baby’s All Right
4.8 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
4.9.22 – Washington, DC – Jammin’ Java
4.13.22 – Miami, FL – The Fillmore *
4.14.22 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live *
4.15.22 – Athens, GA – Hendershots
4.16.22 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle *
4.17.22 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle *
4.19.22 – New Orleans, LA – d.b.a
4.20.22 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
4.21.22 – Austin, TX – Mohawk
4.22.22 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
4.23.22 – Ft Worth, TX – Tulips
4.25.22 – Albuquerque, NM – InsideOut
4.26.22 – Tucson, AZ – Groundworks
4.27.22 – Palm Springs, CA – Alibi
4.28.22 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon
4.29.22 – Santa Ana, CA – La Santa
4.30.22 – San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
5.3.22 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Atrium at The Catalyst
5.4.22 – Oakland, CA – Starline Social Club
5.6.22 – Portland, OR – Polaris Hall
5.9.22 – Salt Lake City, UT – Hangar House
5.10.22 – Denver, CO – Globe Hall
5.12.22 – Des Monies, IA – xBk
5.14.22 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
5.15.22 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern
* w/ Clairo