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Mar 26, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Madeline McManus

John Cale has announced a new album, POPtical Illusion, and shared its first single, “How We See the Light,” via a music video. POPtical Illusion is due out June 14 via Double Six/Domino. Pepi Ginsberg directed the “How We See the Light” video. Watch it below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork.

POPtical Illusion is the quick follow-up to MERCY, which was his first new album in a decade and was released in January 2023 via Double Six/Domino. That album featured a slew of notable collaborators, including Weyes Blood, Animal Collective, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Fat White Family, and Actress. MERCY was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2023. A press release points out that POPtical Illusion “is not at all MERCY II, or some collection of castoffs.”

Cale produced the new album with longtime artistic partner Nita Scott in his Los Angeles studio. Cale was a founding member of the legendary ’60s band The Velvet Underground, but has often sought to push his music into the future, rather than reveling in past glories.

Read our 2023 interview with John Cale on MERCY.

Read our review of MERCY.

POPtical Illusion Tracklist:

1. God Made Me Do It (don’t ask me again)
2. Davies and Wales
3. Calling You Out
4. Edge of Reason
5. I’m Angry
6. How We See The Light
7. Company Commander
8. Setting Fires
9. Shark-Shark
10. Funkball the Brewster
11. All To the Good
12. Laughing In My Sleep
13. There Will Be No River

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