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Apr 29, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Alexandra Cabral

Minimalist singer/songwriter Lael Neale is releasing a new album, Altogether Stranger, this Friday via Sub Pop. Now she has shared its third single, “Wild Waters,” via a self-directed music video. Watch it below.

Neale had this to say about “Wild Waters” in a press release: “The video for ‘Wild Waters’ was a collaboration with choreographer and dancer Sandi [Denton]. I had this vision of dancers playing the part of interdimensional beings performing a dance that would open a portal, calling my character through. In perfect synchronicity, when I approached Sandi with the idea, she had already been building a two-person dance that fit seamlessly. I love working with Sandi for this reason.”

Regular collaborator Guy Blakeslee produced and mixed the album, which was recorded at home. Chris Coady mastered Altogether Stranger.

Neale also had this to say about “Wild Waters”: “While the album was made by just me and Guy, the really fun part of creating this film was getting to include our friends in the production and experiment alongside some of the many visionary artists who are active in Los Angeles right now to bring the story to life. The guiding ethos for both the record and the film was an intuitive (vs. technical) approach, embracing the primitive simplicity of making things by hand.

Previously Neale shared the album’s first single, “Tell Me How to Be Here,” via a self-directed video. It was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared its second single, “Down on the Freeway,” via a self-directed music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

On release day, Neale will release music videos for all the remaining songs from the album.

Altogether Stranger finds Neale returning to Los Angeles after three years of living in rural Virginia. She was born and raised in Virginia before moving to Los Angeles then back to VA during the pandemic and now back to LA again. The video for “Tell Me How to Be Here” superimposes images of LA on top of a double exposed Neale as she sings the song.

“On returning to Los Angeles I felt like an extraterrestrial landing on a dystopian planet so I’m writing from the perspective of a being from another realm witnessing the peculiarities of humanity,” says Neale in a press release.

“In the course of writing this record there was one song I could never finish. The main line was, ‘I don’t belong here, I am an altogether stranger.’ I meant ‘stranger’ as a noun, not an adjective. Even though I abandoned the song, the lost chorus stuck with me & became the unspoken motif of the record,” says Neale of the album’s title.

Altogether Stranger is Neale’s third Sub Pop album and the follow-up to Star Eaters Delight (which was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2023) and Acquainted With Night (which was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2021).

In 2024 Neale shared the new song “Electricity,” which is not featured on the new album.

Read our interview with Lael Neale on Star Eaters Delight.

Read our rave review of the album here.

Read our 2021 interview with Lael Neale.

Lael Neale Tour Dates:

Fri. May 02 - London, UK - Rough Trade East
Sat. May 10 - Dublin, IE - Workman’s Cellar *
Sun. May 11 - Belfast, UK - McHughs *
Wed. May 14 - Lausanne, CH - Le Romandie*
Thu. May 15 - Dijon, FR - La Vapeur *
Fri. May 16 - Paris, FR - Le Hasard Ludique *
Sat. May 17 - Brussels, BE - Les Nuits Botanique
Mon. May 19 - Amsterdam, NL - DOKA *
Tue. May 20 - Hamburg, DE - Nachtasyl *
Wed. May 21 - Berlin, DE - Kantine am Berghain *
Fri. May 23 - Copenhagen, DK - Huset
Sat. May 24 - Stockholm, SE - Echo Three Fest
Tue. May 27 - Bristol, UK - The Louisiana *
Wed. May 28 - London, UK - Omeara *
Thu. May 29 - Manchester, UK - YES Basement *
Fri. May 30 - Newcastle, UK - Cumberland Arms *
Sat. May 31 - Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint *
Sun. Jun. 01- Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belgique ^
Mon. Jun. 02 - Lyon, FR - Le Radiant ^
Sun.Jun 08 - Guastalla, IT - Handmade Festival
Thu. Jun.12 - Luxembourg, LU - Rotondes *
Sat. Jun. 14 - Hilvarenbeek, NL - Best Kept Secret Festival

* w/ Entrance (Guy Blakeslee)
^ w/ Beach House

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