There are lots of big albums to anticipate next year, and at least one of them is showing up early. In February, Sharon Van Etten and her band the Attachment Theory will release their new self-titled LP. You should be excited for this one. This one is the good shit.

When Van Etten announced the new album, she shared the single “Afterlife.” That’s a good song. Today, Van Etten and her bandmates follow that one with the new single “Southern Life (What Must It Be Like).” It’s a heavy, churning synth-rock jam, and it serves as another reason to be excited for the LP. The song came together during tour rehearsal, and it gives Van Etten a chance to really throw some heavy echo on her voice.

In a press release, Van Etten says that “Southern Life” is about “trying to understand people with very different perspectives and backgrounds, while also trying to be compassionate towards our past, present, and future selves.” She continues:

After days of rehearsing the songs from the album and how to execute them live, I was getting tired of hearing myself. I didn’t want to over rehearse the songs to death. And so, for the first time ever, I asked if the band just wanted to “jam,” play without it having to be something, to clear our heads.

That experiment really paid off. Below, check out the song’s Ethan Dawes-directed video, which has footage of Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory playing a surprise set at LA’s Viper Room. Also, the band has added a bunch of tour dates, and those are also below.

TOUR DATES:
2/01 – Westerly, RI @ The United #
2/03 – Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater #
2/04 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony #
2/28 – Oslo, Norway @ Rockefeller *
3/01 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Fållan *
3/02 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega *
3/04 – Berlin, Germany @ Astra Kulturhaus *
3/06 – Paris, France @ Le Trianon *
3/07 – Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma *
3/08 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso *
3/10 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall *
3/11 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall *
3/12 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom *
4/24 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern ^
4/25 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl ^
4/26 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel ^
4/28 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ^
4/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer ^
5/01 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner ^
5/02 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel ^
5/05 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall ^
5/06 – Toronto, ON @ History ^
5/08 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee ^
5/09 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed ^
5/10 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre ^
5/12 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre ^
5/13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall ^
5/15-16 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile ^
5/17 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre ^
5/18 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall ^
5/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern ^

# with She Keeps Bees
* with Nabihah Iqbal
^ with Love Spells

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is out 2/7 on Jagjaguwar.