Songwriter, producer, and Bon Iver member S. Carey has announced Break Me Open, his first new record in four years. Carey has had a difficult couple of years, with the pandemic serving as a backdrop for the dissolution of his marriage and death of his father, and those experiences helped shape the new album. As he explains in a statement:

Change is good. Fucking hard, but good. For many, to say the last two years have been difficult would be an understatement. Stress and uncertainty about life in general, family, friends, kids, even Mother Earth has grown exponentially. There is a heaviness to human consciousness right now, a darkness at the surface.

Break Me Open is about love — past, present, and future. It’s about fatherhood — the overwhelming feeling of deep love for my kids and the melancholy of watching them grow up right before my eyes. It’s about accepting my faults and wrongdoings, exposing myself, and trying to know myself better than I did the day before. But above the darkness, it’s a message of hope, honesty, and growth. It’s a call to be vulnerable: Break Me Open.

The warm, tender lead single and title track “Break Me Open” features horns from CJ Camerieri (CARM) and bass and drums by Zach Hanson. Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Dark”
02 “Starless”
03 “Sunshower”
04 “Island”
05 “Waking Up”
06 “Desolate”
07 “Paralyzed”
08 “Where I Was”
09 “Break Me Open”
10 “Crestfallen”

TOUR DATES:
04/28 Eau Claire, WI @ Masonic Temple
04/30 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
05/01 Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar
05/03 Toronto, ON @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
05/04 Montréal, QC @ Bar Le ‘Ritz’ P.D.B.
05/05 Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre
05/06 Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
05/08 Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
05/11 Philadelphia, PA @ The Lounge at World Cafe Live
05/12 Washington, DC @ Miracle Theatre
05/13 Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
05/14 Milwaukee, WI @ Back Room at Colectivo Coffee
05/16 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
07/15 Vancouver, BC @ The Fox Cabaret
07/16 Seattle, WA @ Barboza
07/17 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
07/19 Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
07/20 Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
07/22 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
07/23 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
07/25 Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
07/26 Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge

Break Me Open is out 4/22 on Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.