Next month, Beth Orton is releasing a new album, Weather Alive, her first in six years. We’ve heard the title track and “Forever Young” from it so far, and today she’s back with another new song, “Friday Night,” alongside news of her first tour dates in half a decade. Here’s how Orton framed it:

“Friday Night” is someone reflecting on and trying to decide what to give up or what to surrender to. Passion or ambivalence? Whether to “bleed or rust in the rain.” Most of us are struggling to make sense of where to put the love we have for those that are lost to us, let alone the ones that remain. Sometimes there is no right answer except to find the wisdom in the spaces between the endings and beginnings, in the remembrance of things past or in search of lost time, there are always repercussions to the choices we make. We are listening to the internal dialogue of someone living it out, what is futile and what is worth fighting for, and trying to do as little damage along the way. Friday night being the night that makes the week more bearable, there is hope. Coming to realise what is real and what is out of reach can be unbelievably painful, waking up to the love that remains can be the greatest gift and the most wonderful surprise. Even in absence there is presence, there is no escape but to look for where the love is still alive within us.

Listen below, where you can also find those tour dates.

TOUR DATES:
08/19 Devon, UK @ Beautiful Days Festival
08/21 Bangor County Down, IE @ Open House Festival
10/07 Birmingham, UK @ Academy 2
10/08 Brighton, UK @ St. Bartholomew’s Church
10/09 London, UK @KOKO
10/10 Norwich, UK @ Arts Centre
10/12 Bristol, UK @ St. George’s
10/13 Glasgow, UK @ Classic Grand
10/15 Manchester, UK @ RCMN Concert Hall
10/16 Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
11/01 Washington, DC @ Sixth & I
11/02 Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
11/03 Montclair, NJ @ First Congregational Church
11/05 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
11/06 Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
11/07 Montreal, QUE @ Le Studio TD
11/08 Toronto, ONT @ The Great Hall
11/10 Chicago, IL @ The Mayfield
11/11 Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theatre
11/12 Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN @ The Cedar
11/14 Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater
11/16 Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
11/17 Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
11/18 San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s
11/20 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
11/21 Seattle, WA @ Neptune
11/22 Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theater

Weather Alive is out 9/23 via Partisan.