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Apr 27, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Jacob Boll

M. Ward has announced a new album, Supernatural Thing, and shared its first single, title track “Supernatural Thing,” via an animated music video. Supernatural Thing features First Aid Kit, Jim James, and Neko Case and is due out June 23 via ANTI-. Check out the “Supernatural Thing” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork.

The album’s title track is about a message from Elvis Presley: “you can go anywhere you please.”

“Well, all my songs depend on dream-imagery to some extent,” Ward explains in a press release, “and this was an actual dream I had about Elvis, when he came to me and said that. I don’t know if it’s pandemic-related or not.”

Supernatural Thing features two covers: “I Can’t Give Everything Away” from David Bowie’s final album Blackstar, and a live rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.” Ward previously covered Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” on his acclaimed third album, 2003’s breakthrough release Transfiguration of Vincent.

“Bowie and Johnston are constant sources of inspiration for me, have been for I don’t know how many years,” Ward says.

As well as First Aid Kit, Jim James, and Neko Case, the album also features Shovels & Rope, Kelly Pratt, and Scott McMicken.

Summing up Supernatural Thing, Ward says that “the title comes from an early thought as a kid that radio traveled the same airwaves as messages from supernatural things—and music, especially remembered music, is somehow tied up in this exchange. The sending and receiving of messages from memory and dreams seem to move along this same often broken-up wavelength. I see this new record as an extension, 18 years later, of my Transistor Radio record, but this new record is better because it’s more concise and has more voices and more moods—the way my favorite radio was and still is.”

Supernatural Thing follows two albums Ward released in 2020, Migration Stories and the Billie Holiday covers album Think of Spring. In 2022 he also released Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson via his duo with Zooey Deschanel, She & Him.

Supernatural Thing Tracklist:

1. lifeline
2. too young to die (feat. First Aid Kit)
3. supernatural thing
4. new kerrang (feat. Scott McMicken)
5. dedication hour (feat. Neko Case)
6. i can’t give everything away (feat. Jim James)
7. engine 5 (feat. First Aid Kit)
8. mr. dixon (feat. Shovels & Rope)
9. for good (feat. Kelly Pratt)
10. story of an artist

M. Ward European Tour Dates:

5/19 - Vienna, AT @ Chelsea
5/21 - Berlin, DE @ Prachtwerk
5/26 - Lisbon, PT @ LAV
5/27 - Porto, PT @ M.ou.co

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