Widowspeak, the Brooklyn based dream pop band, have revealed that their fourth album, Expect The Best will be released on August 25th. According to the band’s statement, the album was written while Molly Hamilton was living in Tacoma, Washington after moving between New York and Brooklyn. Returning to the place where she grew up and to a place Hamilton knows, it was the force to spark the record. Expect The Best is filled with songs that speak about self-examination and feeling adrift.
To prepare the world for their new record, they have released the hypnotic first single, “Dog, ” which brings those themes together. In a world consumed by social media, the moody video to the single shines a light on the need to be connected and yet disconnected at the same time. Filmed in dim lighting, Hamilton sings while staring at her smartphone and sharing some of her envy for a four legged friend.
The song, according to Hamilton is about “the compulsion to move on from things and places, even people, when you’re not necessarily ready to.” She continues by that saying that; “it also addresses how I look at social media. I think it will help me feel connected to people I used to see more, but I end up feeling lonelier, like I’m missing out on a sense of contentedness that comes with staying put or at least committing to a particular direction. So it’s not literally about my dog so much as the way a dog might think about its home—not overthinking the next move, geographic or mental.”
The album follows a different path away from what Hamilton usually writes about. “In the past I’ve felt compelled to write songs that are more optimistic than I’m actually feeling, as if I could make it true, as if everything in the past was significant or beautiful in a way, even if it was painful. But the truth is that not everything makes sense, and not every day of your life is an experience of clear cut emotional clarity.”
Expect The Best is the follow up to their 2015 album, All Yours and appears to be the darkest album in their repertoire but still holds the intimacy that the band is known for. Unlike their previous records where music was conceived as a duo, the new record plays with the specific strength of it’s new members James Jano on drums and Willy Muse on base. Recorded by Kevin MacMahon of Swans and Real Estate, Expect The Best will stay true to the band’s esscence, the way that it was created to be heard; by four people in a room making music together. The album is set to be released digitally and physically on August 25th via Captured Tracks.
Expect The Best track listing:
The Dream
When I Tried
Dog
Warmer
Good Sport
Let Me
Right On
Expect The Best
Fly On The Wall
Pre-order Expect the Best:
Physical | Digital
Watch the music video of Dog below which was directed by Otium.
In honor of the new album, Widowspeak reports that a Fall tour will kick off September 8 at The Great Scott in Boston, MA and will conclude at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade on October 13. The band will stop in Toronto, Los Angeles, and Chicago as well as performing at the Ignite Retreats (Real Love Summer Fest) on July 28th. For more tour dates, check out the list below.
Tour Dates:
07/27 – Teulon, MB – Ignite Retreats (Real Love Summer Fest)
09/08 – Boston, MA – Great Scott
09/09 – Burlington, VT – ArtsRiot
09/11 – Toronto, ON – Garrison
09/12 – Detroit, MI – El Club
09/13 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
09/15 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
09/16 – Madison, WI – High Noon
09/17 – Des Moines, IA – Des Moines Social Club
09/19 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive
09/20 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
09/21 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
09/22 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
09/23 – Seattle, WA – Barboza
09/24 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
09/26 – San Francisco, CA – Swedish American Hall
09/27 – Visalia, CA – Cellar Door
09/28 – Los Angeles, CA – Pico Union
09/29 – San Diego, CA – The Hideout
09/30 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
10/01 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
10/03 – Austin, TX – Sidewinder
10/04 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
10/05 – Birmingham, AL – Syndicate Lounge
10/06 – Nashville, TN – The High Watt
10/07 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
10/08 – Asheville, NC – The Mothlight
10/10 – Washington, DC – DC9
10/11 – Philadelphia, PA – Boot and Saddle
10/12 – Kingston, NY – BSP Kingston
10/13 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
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