Little Scream is making her return with a new album. Titled Speed Queen, the record will arrive on October 25 via Dine Alone/Merge.
Right now, though, you can check out a new video for the album's opener "Dear Leader," featuring cameos from the National, Arcade Fire, Superchunk, Holly Miranda, Leif Vollebekk, Mélissa Laveaux and more.
Speed Queen marks the third album from Laurel Sprengelmeyer's Montreal-based Little Scream project and first since 2016's Cult Following.
According to a press release, "Little Scream offers us a reflection on class and poverty in America. Speed Queen began as bits of prose written while touring her last album across North America — observing the slow entropy of the U.S., ruminating on her own low-income upbringing in a flyover state, and, as she says, 'taking it all in from the privileged position of being a new Canadian.'"
The album title itself, meanwhile, may allude to the opiate crisis but actually refers to a washing machine, the PR explains.
"When you're struggling, nothing says you've made it more than getting your own washing machine," Sprengelmeyer said in a statement. "Speed Queen is about the dream of making it, and feeling desperately close but missing it."
For a taste of what's in store, you can watch the video to "Dear Leader" below. Much of the protest footage in the clip was shot by filmmaker Shannon Walsh while in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Movement protests of 2014.
"This is a lyric video made up largely from crowd-sourced submissions from friends around the world, from São Paulo, Paris, and Barcelona to Des Moines, all shot on a phone," said Sprengelmeyer. "Many artists are pictured, but many are people I encountered while working on the video with documentary filmmaker Shannon Walsh. She and I approached people on the street and heard many interesting stories along the way, from the native man from Bella Bella who told us about being told to 'go back to where you came from' (he jumped and replied, 'I'm here'), to a man paying homage to lost friends at the AIDS memorial at Sunset Beach in Vancouver, to a group of young people returning from a rally to support LGBTQIA rights."
Watch the clip for "Dear Leader" below, where you'll also find the album tracklist. That's the cover art above.
Speed Queen:
1. Dear Leader
2. One Lost Time
3. Switchblade
4. Disco Ball
5. Still Life
6. Forces Of Spring
7. No More Saturday Night
8. Speed Queen
9. Don't Wait For It
10. Privileged Child
Right now, though, you can check out a new video for the album's opener "Dear Leader," featuring cameos from the National, Arcade Fire, Superchunk, Holly Miranda, Leif Vollebekk, Mélissa Laveaux and more.
Speed Queen marks the third album from Laurel Sprengelmeyer's Montreal-based Little Scream project and first since 2016's Cult Following.
According to a press release, "Little Scream offers us a reflection on class and poverty in America. Speed Queen began as bits of prose written while touring her last album across North America — observing the slow entropy of the U.S., ruminating on her own low-income upbringing in a flyover state, and, as she says, 'taking it all in from the privileged position of being a new Canadian.'"
The album title itself, meanwhile, may allude to the opiate crisis but actually refers to a washing machine, the PR explains.
"When you're struggling, nothing says you've made it more than getting your own washing machine," Sprengelmeyer said in a statement. "Speed Queen is about the dream of making it, and feeling desperately close but missing it."
For a taste of what's in store, you can watch the video to "Dear Leader" below. Much of the protest footage in the clip was shot by filmmaker Shannon Walsh while in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Movement protests of 2014.
"This is a lyric video made up largely from crowd-sourced submissions from friends around the world, from São Paulo, Paris, and Barcelona to Des Moines, all shot on a phone," said Sprengelmeyer. "Many artists are pictured, but many are people I encountered while working on the video with documentary filmmaker Shannon Walsh. She and I approached people on the street and heard many interesting stories along the way, from the native man from Bella Bella who told us about being told to 'go back to where you came from' (he jumped and replied, 'I'm here'), to a man paying homage to lost friends at the AIDS memorial at Sunset Beach in Vancouver, to a group of young people returning from a rally to support LGBTQIA rights."
Watch the clip for "Dear Leader" below, where you'll also find the album tracklist. That's the cover art above.
Speed Queen:
1. Dear Leader
2. One Lost Time
3. Switchblade
4. Disco Ball
5. Still Life
6. Forces Of Spring
7. No More Saturday Night
8. Speed Queen
9. Don't Wait For It
10. Privileged Child
