“I was such a sucker then/ Staring at myself in the mirror, I thought I was dead,” Stephen Steinbrink sings on “I’m Turning Inside Out,” the twinkling centerpiece on the West coast songwriter’s seventh album. “I didn’t even know my name/ Theoretical mass in my eyeball is pulling me in/ I’m never escaping again.” That sense of confusion and upheaval comes up time and time again on Anagrams, and it’s always met with an equally powerful placidity and enlightenment. Those two opposing forces have always been at the heart of Steinbrink’s songwriting, the balance between self-reflection and self-actualization. On another song, he sings of dissociative states (“I sleep but never dream/ Inhale but never breathe”); one has him coming to terms with a drinking problem (“Malevolent cognitive breach/ No one to call but your mother”). Early singles “Absent Mind,” “Building Machines,” and the title track paint portraits of someone constantly in transition, but they’re frustratingly and intentionally out-of-focus, blurry; Anagrams as a whole doesn’t do much in the way of clarification, but it does feel like a steadying force against the rush of life when it feels too jumbled-up to make any sense. Listen to the whole thing via Hype Machine below.

Tour Dates:
06/24 Oakland, CA @ Badger Claw Castle
06/25 Santa Cruz, CA @ Hanover Hideout
06/26 Santa Barbara @ Dashain Co-op
06/29 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
06/30 Pomona, CA @ Acerogami
09/26 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Beta
09/27 Aarhus, Denmark @ Atlas
09/28 Hamburg, Germany @ Clubheim Im Schanzenpark
09/29 Berlin, Germany @ ACUD
09/30 Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix (w/ Pinegrove)
10/02 Rotterdam, The Netherlands @ v11
10/03 Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
10/04 London, UK @ The Lexington
10/07 Luzern, Switzerland @ Neubad
10/09 Varese, Italy @ Twiggy
10/10 Livorno, Italy @ Ex Cinema Aurora
10/11 Misano Adriatico, Italy @ Wave Club
10/12 Roma, Italy @ Na Cosetta

Anagrams is out 7/1 via Melodic. Pre-order it here.