Manchester Orchestra Walk Through 'The Valley of Vision' on New Album

Hear opener "Capital Karma" before the album (and accompanying short film) arrive in April

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Feb 23, 2023

Manchester Orchestra have detailed their seventh studio LP. The Atlanta outfit will share new album The Valley of Vision digitally on March 10 via Loma Vista Recordings, ahead of an April 7 physical release. 

Following 2021's The Million Masks of God, six-track The Valley of Vision takes its title from a 1975 book of Puritan prayers gifted to frontman Andy Hull by his mother for Christmas 2020 — later rediscovered by the vocalist in summer 2021 while digging through his suitcase in search of his lyric writing notebook.

More than the book's contents, its title alone is said to have become a mantra that helped inspire the "idyllic yet otherworldly energy" found on the album and its accompanying short film, directed by Isaac Deitz.

It's a description befitting of album opener "Capital Karma," which you can hear below. A press release points to the band's paring back of their usual guitar-led sound, instead crafting "primitive yet powerful piano leads and shimmering atmospheres."

Hull shares in a statement, "Making The Valley of Vision was an exciting idea of what the future could be for us in terms of how we create. None of these songs were written with the band being in the same room in a live setting. They were really like science experiments that started from the bottom and were added to gradually over time. We're intrigued by doing things the wrong way, or attempting things we haven't done before and getting inspired by them."

Deitz, who previously helmed Manchester Orchestra's video for "Telepath," had been speaking with frontman Hull about a larger album-related visual component since 2021. He shares, "A year later he sent me The Valley of Vision, and I realized we had the potential to really do something special. Experiencing the film in its intended 180-degree, 3D VR format feels like downloading a dream into your head, and listening to the album feels like receiving an abstract map of different lessons regarding the human experience — forgiving yourself, listening to yourself, letting go, and saying goodbye to the old."

Having already sold out screening events in Los Angeles and New York, Manchester Orchestra will debut The Valley of Vision with a worldwide watch party on their official YouTube channel March 9 before the album's digital release.

Pre-order The Valley of Vision.


The Valley of Vision:

1. Capital Karma
2. The Way
3. Quietly
4. Letting Go
5. Lose You Again
6. Rear View

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