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Mar 28, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Cate Le Bon

Welsh singer/songwriter/guitarist Cate Le Bon is releasing a new album, Reward, on May 24 via Mexican Summer. Previously she shared its first single, “Daylight Matters,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Now “Daylight Matters” has a video. Casey Raymond directed the video, which features Le Bon wandering around desolate landscapes in a bright red coat. Watch it below, followed by Le Bon’s upcoming tour dates.

In a press release Le Bon says the video represents “playful solitary despair in an alien landscape of sinking sand and towers in the sea. Searching or running away? A little bit of both, maybe.”

In terms of her solo work, Reward is the follow-up to 2016’s Crab Day, although last year she released Hippo Lite, her second album with DRINKS, a collaboration with Tim Presley of White Fence. Le Bon also produced Deerhunter‘s recent album.

Le Bon spent a year living in isolation in the Lake District in the UK, by day making wood furniture and by night playing piano and writing songs. “There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,” Le Bon said in a previous press release.

Of the album title, Le Bon said: “People hear the word ‘reward’ and they think that it’s a positive word, and to me it’s quite a sinister word in that it depends on the relationship between the giver and the receiver. I feel like it’s really indicative of the times we’re living in where words are used as slogans, and everything is slowly losing its meaning.”

The album features Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, H. Hawkline, and Samur Khouja. The latter co-produced Reward with Le Bon.

Cate Le Bon Tour Dates:

Sat. May 18 - Wrexham, UK @ Focus Wales Festival
Fri. May 24 - Rouen, FR @ Rush Festival
Sat. May 25 - Toulouse, FR @ Discipline Festival
Sun. May 26 - Madrid, ES @ Independance Club
Mon. May 27 - Donostia, ES @ Dabadaba
Tue. May 28 - Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound Festival
Wed. May 29 - Bordeaux, FR @ iBoat
Fri. May 31 - Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
Sat. June 1 - Neustrelitz, DE @ Immergut Festival
Sun. June 2 - Berlin, DE @ Kantine Am Berghain
Mon. June 3 - Copenhagen, DK @ Den Grå Hal (w/ Deerhunter)
Tue. June 4 - Aarhus, DK @ Tape
Thu. June 6 - Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
Fri. June 7 - Brussels, BE @ Les Ateliers Claus
Sat. June 8 - Paris, FR @ Villette Sonique
Mon. June 10 - London, UK @ Village Underground
Sat. June 22 - Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Festival
Tue. June 25 - Kingston, NY @ BSP Kingston
Wed. June 26 - Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Thu. June 27 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Fri. June 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
Sat. June 29 - North Adams, MA @ Solid Sound Festival
Sun. June 30 - Somerville, MA @ ONCE Lounge
Fri. July 5 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
Sat. July 6 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Getty Center
Sun. July 7 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
Tue. July 9 - San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Fri. July 12 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Sat. July 13 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile Cafe
Thu. July 18 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue (w/ Parquet Courts)
Fri. July 19 - Chicago, IL @ Constellation
Sat. July 20 - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Festival
Fri. Aug. 23 - Bethesda, UK @ Neuadd Ogwen
Sat. Aug. 24 - West Lothian, UK @ Jupiter Rising Festival
Sun. Aug. 25 - Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Tue. Aug. 27 - Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Wed. Aug. 28 - Leeds, UK @ Riley Smith Theatre
Thu. Aug. 29 - Cardiff, UK @ Portland House
Sun. Sept. 1 - Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival

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