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Mar 31, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Ebru Yildiz / Composite by Nicole White

The New Pornographers have released a new album, Continue as a Guest, today via Merge, their first for the label. Now that it’s out, you can stream the whole thing here and read our review of it. Stream the album below and read our review, which we posted today, here. Also below are the band’s upcoming tour dates.

The band have also singled out “Bottle Episodes” as the album’s new single.

Frontman Carl Newman (aka A.C. Newman) had this to say about the single in a press release: “‘Here inside the TV glow of these bottle episodes,’ this one is another ambivalent story about day-to-day life in the pandemic times. I was trying to capture a feeling of being stuck, but you don’t mind being stuck. You’re not sure what to call this life you’re leading. Are you happy? You might be. There should be a word for this.”

Previously they shared the album’s first single, “Really Really Light,” via a music video. “Really Really Light” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Angelcover,” also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its third single, “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” which was again one of our Songs of the Week.

The New Pornographers’ last album was 2019’s In the Morse Code of Brake Lights, released via the band’s own Collected Work imprint, in partnership with Concord. After touring for that album finished, Newman began writing the new album at his home in Woodstock, NY. The lineup for this album was Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders, as well as contributions from saxophonist Zach Djanikian. Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz, Sad13) co-wrote the song “Firework in the Falling Snow.”

A previous press release said Continue as a Guest deals with “themes of isolation and collapse, following the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the pandemic and the endless pitfalls of living online” but that the title track “also addresses the continually rolling concerns that come with being in a band for so long.”

“The idea of continuing as a guest felt very apropos to the times,” Newman explained. “Feeling out of place in culture, in society—not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest.”

Read our 2017 interview with The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman on Whiteout Conditions.

The New Pornographers Tour Dates:

April 19—Asheville, NC—Salvage Station*
April 20—Atlanta, GA—Variety Playhouse*
April 21—New Orleans, LA—Tipitina’s*
April 22—Houston, TX—White Oak Music Hall*
April 23—Dallas, TX—Studio at The Factory*
April 25—Austin, TX—Paramount*
April 26—Oklahoma City, OK—Tower Theatre*
April 27—St. Louis, MO—Sheldon Concert Hall*
April 28—Omaha, NE—The Waiting Room*
April 29—Kansas City, MO—The Truman*
April 30—Denver, CO—Gothic Theatre*
May 3—St. Paul, MN—The Fitzgerald*
May 4—Milwaukee, WI—Turner Hall*
May 5—Chicago, IL—Thalia Hall [SOLD OUT]*
May 6—Chicago, IL— Thalia Hall [SOLD OUT]*
May 8—Cincinnati, OH—Memorial Hall*
May 9—Columbus, OH—Newport Music Hall*
May 11—Detroit, MI—El Club [SOLD OUT]*
May 12—Toronto, ON—Danforth*
May 13—Burlington, VT—Higher Ground Ballroom*
May 14—Norwalk, CT— Wall Street Theater*
May 15—Boston, MA—Royale*
May 17—New York, NY—Brooklyn Steel*
May 18—Philadelphia, PA—Union Transfer*
May 19—Washington, DC—9:30 Club [SOLD OUT]*
May 20—Washington, DC—9:30 Club*
May 21—Saxapahaw, NC—Haw River Ballroom*

*with Wild Pink

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