Kevin Morby released a new album, Oh My God, just last year. It was a double album, so maybe none of us were expecting its successor to arrive so soon. But Morby’s always been fairly prolific, and the scope of Oh My God didn’t slow down his next chapter. Today, Morby’s back with the announcement of another new album, Sundowner, arriving this October. It’s his sixth full-length in seven years.

The roots of Sundowner actually go back to 2017, when Morby moved back to his hometown of Kansas City, KS. He was in the process of finishing up Oh My God, and bought a four track tape recorder to work on the last couple songs. Instead, he wrote a whole bunch of new music, the tape machine opening up a whole new world and approach for him. “I was mesmerized by the magic of the four track not only as a recording device, but also an instrument, and considered it my songwriting partner throughout the whole process,” Morby recalls.

Sundowner apparently hit him effortlessly, songs pouring out of him as he walked quiet streets at night, mourned losses like Jessi Zazu and Anthony Bourdain and Richard Swift, and saw his relationship with his partner, Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee, grow. The name of the album comes from their shared disposition, that they both grow more melancholic in the twilight hours.

“It is a depiction of isolation,” Morby said of the album. “Of the past. Of an uncertain future. Of provisions. Of an omen. Of a dead deer. Of an icon. Of a Los Angeles themed hotel in rural Kansas. Of billowing campfires, a mermaid and a highway lined in rabbit fur. It is a depiction of the nervous feeling that comes with the sky’s proud announcement that another day will be soon coming to a close as the pink light recedes and the street lamps and house lights suddenly click on.”

Along with the announcement, Morby has also announced a “virtual tour” in which he’ll play each of his albums the whole way through via livestream. He’s also shared a lead single called “Campfire,” a two-part sprawl that features one of the album’s evocations of its title. The song comes with a video directed by Johnny Eastlund and Dylan Isbell, and featuring Crutchfield. Check it out below.

TRACKLIST:

01 “Valley”
02 “Brother, Sister”
03 “Sundowner”
04 “Campfire”
05 “Wander”
06 “Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun”
07 “A Night At The Little Los Angeles”
08 “Jamie”
09 “Velvet Highway”
10 “Provisions”

VIRTUAL TOUR DATES:

09/10 – Harlem River
09/17 – Still Life
09/24 – Singing Saw
10/01 – City Music
10/08 – Oh My God
10/15 – Sundowner

Sundowner is out 10/16 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.