Alt-J Share 2022 North American Tour Dates
Alt-J have announced a North American headline tour for 2022, which will kick off in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 25.
The band has also announced their fourth album ‘The Dream’ and shared its first track, ‘U&ME’
The single is described as the trio’s “most honest song to date” and arrives with an accompanying music video, directed by Prosper Unger-Hamilton, the brother of band member Gus.
“It’s about being at a festival with your best friends, having a good time, togetherness, and the feeling in life that nothing could be any better than it is right now,” Gus explained of ‘U&ME’.
The track emerged during soundchecks for Alt-J shows across the globe, with frontman Joe Newman saying that it then “gathered momentum on its own”.
As for Alt-J’s upcoming album, ‘The Dream’ presents “both beauty and darkness […] often seamlessly merging on the same track, a purposeful choice that pays dividends across the record”.
The project will feature “true-crime inspired stories and tales of Hollywood and the Chateau Marmont”, while offering fans some of the trio’s “more personal moments to-date”.
‘The Dream’ is set for release on February 11.
More recently, Alt-J have also shared a poignant new song called ‘Get Better’. The song is accompanied by an animated music video, created by Stefanie Grunwald, an award-winning pixel artist who is based in Hamburg.
The visuals and lyrics depict a person longing for a loved one to get better, and the subsequent coming to terms with their loss. The track also pays tribute to frontline workers during the pandemic.
In a press release, Newman said of the track:
“‘Get Better’ is the union of two songs. The first was an improvised song I sang in 2018 to my partner who was suffering from period pain. To her I sang ‘Get better my Darcy, I know you can’. She filmed it and I kept revisiting the fragment with a plan to write more.
“The second was a chord structure I worked on in lockdown that focused on someone living through a bereavement. I felt a nervous heat when writing ‘Get Better’. The context of the coronavirus pandemic lent my words a chilling weight and gave me a new sense of responsibility as a lyricist. Whilst the direct events described are fictional, I believe – or I hope – that it’s emotionally the most honest song I’ve written.”
Keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton added: “When Joe first played it to me I didn’t just get a bit tearful, I broke down. A big, big cry. A cry of the year.”
The band have also confirmed a slew of tour dates due to take place in the UK and Ireland next year.
More Alt-J tour info can be found here.
The Dream Tour
Show date and time: February 25, 2022 – May 27, 2022
Show location: Petersen Event Center, Pittsburgh, PA – O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK
