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Oct 04, 2023 By Mark Redfern

M. Ward released a new album, Supernatural Thing, in June via ANTI-. Now he has shared a video for the album’s “Engine 5,” which was inspired by Nintendo video games from the 1990s. The song features Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit (Klara and Johanna Söderberg). Amber McCall directed and animated the video. Watch it out below, followed by Ward’s upcoming tour dates.

“First Aid Kit are sisters from Stockholm, and when they open their mouths, something amazing happens,” Ward said in a previous press release. “It was a great thrill to go to Stockholm and record a few songs there. The sound from blood-related harmony singers is impossible to get any other way—The Everly Brothers, The Delmores, The Louvins, The Carters, The Söderbergs—all have the same kind of feeling in their vocals.”

First Aid Kit released a new album, Palomino, in 2022 via Columbia. Read our interview with the band about the album here.

Previously Ward shared Supernatural Thing’s first single, title track “Supernatural Thing,” via an animated music video. Then he shared its second single, “New Kerrang,” which features Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog and was one of our Songs of the Week. Then Ward shared its third single, “Too Young to Die,” which features First Aid Kit and was shared via a music video. “Too Young to Die” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Supernatural Thing also features Jim James, Neko Case, Shovels & Rope, and Kelly Pratt. It includes 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 said in a previous press release.

Summing up Supernatural Thing, Ward said 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.

M. Ward European Tour Dates:

10/17 - Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
10/18 - London, UK @ Bush Hall
10/20 - Paris, France @ Point Ephémère
10/22 - Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ramblin Roots Festival
10/23 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/24 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
10/25 - Ardmore, PA @ Ardmore Music Hall
11/3 - Walla Walla, WA @ Grenache Festival 2023
11/29 - Hobart, Australia @ Altar
12/1 - Marrickville, Australia @ The Great Club
12/5 - Hindmarsh, Australia @ The Gov
12/6 - Fremantle, Australia @ Freo.Social
12/7 - North Perth, Australia @ Rosemount Hotel
12/8 - Archies Creek, Australia @ The Archies Creek Hotel
12/10 - Brunswick, Australia @ Howler

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