Ryley Walker never stops releasing music for long — just last week he shared Deep Fried Grandeur, his collaborative live album with Kikagaku Moyo — but it’s been nearly three years since Deafman Glance, his last full-fledged original album statement. Since then there’s been a radical reinterpretation of a Dave Matthews Band album and countless experimental and improv releases. The man is prolific. But as a fan of his more carefully crafted pop compositions first and foremost, it was exciting to learn that his next such project is on the way.

Course In Fable is dropping in April on Walker’s own Husky Pants label. It features a slew of his longtime collaborators, including Bill MacKay, Ryan Jewell, and Andrew Scott Young, and it was produced by Tortoise’s John McEntire, with string arrangements by Douglas Jenkins of Portland Cello Project. The lead single, out today, is a luxuriant post-rock/chamber-pop shapeshifter called “Rang Dizzy,” which transforms from some lovely Jim O’Rourke Insignificance worship into something more like Beck’s Sea Change with a sense of humor. Lyrically it finds Walker, now 31 and sober, seemingly reflecting on his younger, druggier days: “I am wise/ I am so fried/ Rang dizzy inside/ Fuck me I’m alive.”

This is a good one, folks. Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Striking Down Your Big Premiere”
02 “Rang Dizzy”
03 “A Lenticular Slap”
04 “Axis Bent”
05 “Clad With Bunk”
06 “Pond Scum Ocean”
07 “Shiva With Dustpan”

Course In Fable is out 4/2 on Husky Pants. Pre-order it here.