Last year, the indie rock singer-songwriter Lael Neale released her extremely impressive album Star Eaters Delight, and she followed it with the one-off single “I’ll Be Your Star.” Today, she’s got another new single, and it’s all about how disorienting and centering it can feel to lose electricity.

Lael Neale co-wrote “Electricity” with her regular collaborator Guy Blakeslee, the former Entrance Band leader who went to a lot of the same parties as me in early-’00s Baltimore. The song has an old-school, exploratory Joni Mitchell feeling, and its organ-drones and shakers remind me of Stereolab — two great things to evoke. Neale directed her own desaturated video, and it’s got her wearing a sort of mirrorball unitard and doing choreographed dance steps. Here’s how she describes “Electricity”:

I wrote the song during an ice storm a couple of winters ago that caused a five-day power outage while I was living on my family’s farm in Virginia. I experienced intense withdrawal from all these things we’ve come to depend on so heavily in our modern life — like lighting, heat, refrigeration, and entertainment. I felt a range of sensations from utter emptiness to complete liberation. I realized we’re essentially electrified beings now, but through unplugging entirely we have a chance to gain a new perspective and reset ourselves.

My house lost power during that same ice storm, and it did not make me feel a range of sensations. It just sucked. We had to stay at a hotel when it got too cold, and I had to keep going home to walk the dogs. Anyway. Check out the “Electricity” video and Lael Neale’s upcoming tour dates below.

TOUR DATES:
8/03 – San Pedro, CA @ Genuine Souvenirs Festival
8/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The United Theater on Broadway *
8/11 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival
8/13 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater *
8/14 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre *
8/15 – Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre *

* with Ben Howard

The “Electricity” single is out now on Sub Pop. Lael Neale’s art show Altogether Stranger opens 8/2 at AndPens Gallery in Eagle Rock, California.