Okkervil River Releases New Single, Announces Forthcoming Album

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Okkervil RIver has announced that its forthcoming album In the Rainbow Rain will be released April 27 via ATO Records.

The album, which was produced by frontman Will Sheff, is meant to be hopeful and healing. “I wanted to make a record where a sense of kindness felt encoded into the music,” Sheff said. “In places, the record deals with heavy things like trauma and betrayal and shame, but, actually, it’s supposed to be a good time.”

In advance of the album, Okkervil River dropped lead single “Don’t Move Back to LA.”

“A bunch of my best friends all moved to LA and I was really sad about it so I wrote a song about how I didn’t want them to leave,” Sheff said of the tune. “I think the song is also kind of about my own deep and long-held desire to get the hell out of New York City, which for years I felt was suffocating me but which I couldn’t manage to leave … Ironically, by the very end of recording In the Rainbow Rain I had worked up the courage and had made a solid plan to finally get out of New York City. I got Shawn Everett’s final mix of ‘Don’t Move Back to LA’ in my inbox the morning of the move, and I remember listening to it in my headphones while walking to buy bagels and coffees for the drive.”

Okkervil River will tour in support of the album through spring and into summer, including a stop at SXSW in Austin, the band’s original home.

Listen to the new single below and check out Okkervil River’s upcoming tour dates.

Tour Dates:

Apr 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade NYC (Album Release Show)
May 20 – Washington, DC @ The Black Cat
May 21 – Carboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
May 22 – Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
May 24 – Dallas, TX @ The Kessler Theater
May 25 – Houston, TX @ The Heights Theater
May 29 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
May 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teregram Ballroom
June 1 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
June 2 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
June 4 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
June 5 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
June 7 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room
June 8 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
June 9 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
June 11 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
June 12 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
June 13 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
June 14 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
June 15 – Woodstock, NY @ Colony
June 16 – Boston, MA @ Royale

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