Jack Johnson has announced the release of his first new album in five years, ‘Meet the Moonlight’ – listen to lead single ‘One Step Ahead’ below.
The US singer-songwriter’s eighth studio album – the follow-up to 2017’s ‘All The Light Above It Too’ – will arrive on June 24 via Brushfire/Republic Records.
Johnson made the album with acclaimed producer Blake Mills (Lana Del Rey, Weezer, Norah Jones), recording it at Sound City and EastWest Studios in Los Angeles and Johnson’s Mango Tree studio in Hawaii.
“When Blake and I first got in touch we’d send each other playlists, and over time we realised we were drawn to music that sounds effortless despite all the effort put into making it,” Johnson said in a statement. “After a while we got a language together and I gained a trust in him that allowed me to let go, push outside my comfort zone, and get to a sound I really loved.”
News of the album comes alongside the release lead single ‘One Step Ahead’, a plucky, acoustic guitar-driven cut rich with texture and insightful lyrics: “When it feels like it’s all closing in/ All the lines we won’t cross, we bend instead.”
“We’re at a point where human nature hasn’t changed but the technology around us has changed dramatically, and it’s getting to this dangerous place where the most extreme and sensationalised opinions have the potential to be heard by so many people,” Johnson said of the track.
Picking out a specific line in the song, he added: “That line in the chorus is about trying to breathe through the noise and get to a calmer place, which seems important when we’re seeing a lot of friends lose trust and grow away from each other because they disagree over some issue or another.” You can listen to the track above.
It comes after Johnson recently announced that he’d be heading out on a North American tour this summer. Starting on June 21 in New Hampshire, he’ll be on the road through to October 7.
The tour will see him joined by a variety of guests on select dates, including Durand Jones and the Indications, Ziggy Marley, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Ron Artis II and Thunderstorm Artis, and Lake Street Drive.
You can get tickets for any remaining dates and see the full tour schedule here.
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