alt-J have announced their eagerly-awaited fourth album The Dream, set for release February 11, 2022, via Canvasback / Infectious Music. The English indie rock band was formed in 2007 in Leeds, by Joe Newman, Thom Sonny Green, Gus Unger-Hamilton and Gwilym Sainsbury and released their first album in May of 2012, so this latest album comes almost a decade to the month afterwards. Since their debut An Awesome Wave alt-J have been nominated for multiple Grammy’s, as well as the BRITs and won a Mercury Prize for this debut album.

Alongside the announcement of this new album, alt-J have also released a new song and accompanying music video. The song, titled “U&ME,” is a love story, told through snapshots and accompanied by a video inspired by band member’s Newman’s experiences at a festival in Melbourne. Highlighting an intense feeling of joy, long-time collaborator Charlie Andrew, who produced the track, manages to layer the experimental aspects of the song into a beautiful melody.

Watch and listen to “U&ME” here:

The music video was directed by band member Gus Unger-Hamilton’s brother, Prosper Unger-Hamilton, and is the first video to feature the full band.

Dream, according to the press release is “an album where true-crime-inspired stories and tales of Hollywood and the Chateau Marmont rub shoulders with some of the band’s more personal moments to date. Both beauty and darkness lay side-by-side – often seamlessly merging on the same track, a purposeful choice that pays dividends across the record. The band’s dazzling instrumentation has matured; there are still far-out moments, but now they are deployed with artful precision. The Dream is an album of intrigue, beauty, and humanity – a coalescence of everything that has made alt-J a global band with true staying power.”

Pre-order Dream here.

Dream Tracklist:
1. “Bane”
2. “U&ME”
3. “Hard Drive Gold”
4. “Happier When You’re Gone”
5. “The Actor”
6. “Get Better”
7. “Chicago”
8. “Philadelphia”
9. “Walk A Mile”
10. “Delta”
11. “Losing My Mind”
12. “Powders”

Photo Credit Owen Ela