At the beginning of 2020, Califone emerged after a long absence with their first album in 7 years, Echo Mine. They took some time, though not nearly as long, to get a follow-up ready. Today, the Tim Rutili-led project has announced a new album called villagers, which will be released in May. It includes contributions from Brian Deck, Michael Krassner, Rachel Blumberg, and Ben Massarella.

“I came out of this judging myself a little bit less harshly, trusting myself a tiny bit more,” Rutili said in a statement. “It feels comfortable to combine elements of Captain Beefheart, ’70s AM radio pop, and broken digital sounds. There are words that shouldn’t go together and images that are smashed together that maybe shouldn’t be, but it feels right.”

Check out lead single “the habsburg jaw” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “the habsburg jaw”
02 “eyelash”
03 “mcmansions”
04 “villagers”
05 “comedy”
06 “ox-eye”
07 “halloween”
08 “skunkish”
09″ “sweetly”

villagers is out 5/19 via Jealous Butcher Records. Pre-order it here.