Shannon Lay has announced a new studio album called Geist, which is set to be released on October 8 via Sub Pop. The artist has also debuted two new songs, the title-track and “Awaken and Allow,” which are joined together on a new music video directed by Kai McKnight.

“Awaken and Allow / Geist” opens with Lay parking in a Los Angeles alleyway and entering the Zebulon, a live entertainment venue and bar located near Dodger stadium. The first song “Awaken and Allow,” sees Lay smoothly singing as she journeys across the venue and the beach, where a gentle orchestral arrangement accompanies her gentle voice, “Geist” sees Lay and a live band perform the song on stage, and while the track also shows Lay’s vocal restraint, the instrumental is more eclectic, with ethereal keyboards and a cello accompanying her voice.

Lay launched her career as a solo musician back in 2015 with the release of Holy Heartache a collection of 16 demos recorded in her home that were uploaded onto Bandcamp. The performer would go on to release several other projects including All This Life Going Down the following year and Living Water in 2017. August, Lay’s latest studio album release, came out in 2019 via Sub Pop and saw Lay team up with Ty Segall to create a more sonically complex, yet intimate sound.

“August is impressionable and malleable in its meaning depending on who‘s listening,” mxdwn reviewer Elle Henriksen explained. “The album isn’t flimsy, but it is fragile like wet pottery — a kind of sculpted vulnerability. Yet, Lay’s refined lyrical anecdotes feel more relatable than not. She appeals to emotion rather than reason, which for some may be comforting, but the album lacks the nerve to be anything other than an art piece.

Geist

1. Rare to Wake
2. A Thread to Find
3. Sure
4. Shores
5. Awaken and Allow
6. Geist
7. Untitled
8. Late Night
9. Times Arrow
10. July