Juanita Stein will release her new album ‘The Weightless Hour’ on 29th November via Agricultural Audio. The Howling Bells front-woman will bookend her fourth solo LP’s release with a series of live dates, including a UK tour with Evan Dando, and a series of in-store shows, before joining Travis on their UK dates in December.
She shares the first single ‘Mother Natures Scorn’, alongside a video directed by Orlando Cubitt.
Juanita explains: ““As the title suggests, ‘Mother Natures Scorn’ is a song about our scorching of the Earth. It’s about recognising that we are in a moment approaching irreversibility. Even so, it feels as if the closer we ride into the storm, the more familiar we become with apathy, which is terribly frightening. I’m acknowledging the limitlessness of Mother Nature. It’s not self-righteous, I am not campaigning, I am merely recognising our intense vulnerability in this moment.”
’The Weightless Hour’ sees Stein join forces once more with long-time collaborator, the producer Ben Hillier (see also: Depeche Mode, Doves, Blur, Elbow). After originally teaming up for 2020’s Snapshot, Stein’s third record, which was built from collected fragments of grief following the loss of her father, it was Hillier’s penchant for minimalism – his instinct for risk-taking while stripping sounds back to their gleaming bones – that aligned with her vision for her fourth project.
In removing most instrumental additions beyond the guitar (and you will notice there are no drums on the LP), with ‘The Weightless Hour’, Stein made a subconscious choice to make the project entirely her own. In the space freed by the stripped-back instrumentation, her storytelling bleeds freely like watercolours across a blank page. The album is an intensely human document with a profound sense of dignity. A record on which Stein has found that exploring a more restrained side can yield work that is armed with experience and yet is all the lighter for it, where your attention isn’t demanded and yet is effortlessly claimed. Every sound, every choice, has earned its place.
“I think making records is a really powerful way of letting go of experiences,” Stein notes. “I’m allowing myself to kiss things goodbye.” Through these converging chapters of her life, ‘The Weightless Hour’ feels like an arrival for Juanita Stein: “I’ve finally learned to be okay in space and be loud in my experiences.”
THE WEIGHTLESS HOUR – TRACKLISTING
1. The Weightless Hour
2. Mother Natures Scorn
3. The Game
4. Old World
5. Carry Me
6. Motionless
7. Daily Rituals
8. Ceremony
9. Driving Nowhere
10. Delilah
Juanita Stein Live Dates 2024:
OCTOBER
Weds 16th – EDINBURGH, La Belle Angele (with Evan Dando)
Thu 17th – ABERDEEN, Tunnels (with Evan Dando)
Fri 18th – DUNDEE, Fat Sam’s (with Evan Dando)
Sat 19th – GLASGOW, Slay (with Evan Dando)
Mon 21st – LEEDS, Brudenell Social Club (with Evan Dando)
Tue 22nd – NEWCASTLE, Riverside (with Evan Dando)
Wed 23rd – MANCHESTER, Academy 2 (with Evan Dando)
Thu 24th – STOKE, The Sugarmill (with Evan Dando)
Sat 26th – CARDIFF, The Gate (with Evan Dando)
Sun 27th – NOTTINGHAM, Rescue Rooms (with Evan Dando)
Mon 28th – BIRMINGHAM, O2 Institute2 (with Evan Dando)
Wed 30th – LONDON, Islington Assembly Hall (with Evan Dando)
NOVEMBER
Weds 27th – LIVERPOOL, Jacaranda (Instore – Unplugged Session)
Fri 29th – LONDON, ROUGH TRADE WEST (Instore – Unplugged Session)
Sat 30th – BRIGHTON, Resident Records (Appearance, signing)
Sat 30th – LEWES, Union Music Store @1pm (Instore – Unplugged Session)
Sun 1st DEC – BRISTOL, Rough Trade @5pm (Instore – Unplugged Session)
DECEMBER
Thu 5th – LEEDS, o2 Academy (with Travis)
Fri 6th – MANCHESTER, Albert Hall (with Travis)
Sun 8th – LIVERPOOL, Olympia (with Travis)
Mon 9th – WOLVERHAMPTON, The Halls (with Travis)
Tue 10th – NOTTINGHAM, Rock City (with Travis)
Wed 11th – MARGATE, Dreamland (with Travis)
Fri 13th – LONDON, o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (with Travis)
Sat 14th – LONDON, o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (with Travis)
Sun 15th – BRISTOL, Beacon (with Travis)
Tue 17th – EASTBOURNE, Winter Gardens (with Travis)
Wed 18th – SHEFFIELD, Octagon (with Travis)
Thu 19th – NEWCASTLE, City Hall (with Travis)
Sat 21st – GLASGOW, OVO Hydro (with Travis)
Tickets available here.