A couple months ago, Shannon Lay released “Rare To Wake,” a gorgeous new track that landed on our best songs of the week list. Today, she’s announcing a whole new album, Geist, the follow-up to 2019’s August, and she’s releasing two more songs from it, “Awaken And Allow” and the album’s title track.

The former has Lay’s voice front-and-center, crystal-clear and a capella save for a mournful string that starts up halfway through. A video for the songs leads into the more traditional “Geist,” a deftly-picked and spectral love song that finds Lay repeating: “Smile on my face, thinking of you.” Watch and listen below.

Here’s Lay’s statement on the tracks:

“Awaken and Allow” is a prayer and a promise. A quiet moment to reflect on transformation and what it means to me. California represents my comfort zone and in this song, I am urging myself and everyone listening to move out of their comfort zone in order to push ourselves to grow and evolve. We are all in a constant state of change and the way we can learn to move and flow with that change completely elevates our experience with it. The most amazing thing we can do for ourselves is recognize where and how we are standing in our own way and move aside. “Awaken and Allow” your greatness to emerge.

“Geist” is a testament to the power we all have within. We are so much more amazing than we know ourselves to be. With this video, I really wanted to acknowledge some of the incredible people who make shows possible. We filmed at Zebulon in Los Angeles; a venue that has brought so much to the community here and I am so happy they have survived this uncertain time. There is so much going on behind the scenes to create the amazing memories we all have of live music and every part of that took a hit with the pandemic. With all we have been through it has been awe-inspiring to see the strength of the human spirit. Let us move forward with kindness and love toward ourselves and others. Let us see the beauty and wonder in the lives we get to live and appreciate every moment of it.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Rare To Wake”
02 “A Thread To Find”
03 “Sure”
04 “Shores”
05 “Awaken And Allow”
06 “Geist”
07 “Untitled”
08 “Late Night”
09 “Times Arrow”
10 “July”

Geist is out 10/8 via Sub Pop.