After delivering All My Favourite Singers Are Willie Nelson back in 2015, Calgary songwriter Matthew Swann has lifted the curtain on his sophomore follow-up as Astral Swans.
Titled Strange Prison, Swann's latest will arrive May 18 through Saved By Vinyl/Moorworks/Tiny Room Records. Twelve tracks in length, Strange Prison was co-produced with Scott Munro (Preoccupations), Dan Mangan and Paul Chirka (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra), and is described as Swann's "most sonically exploratory and emotionally resonant release to date."
Strange Prison's songs concern the nuances of human existence, dealing with themes of "pain, alienation and our limitations," with end objective of "finding beauty to transcend the shittiness of the world."
"These songs are character studies in the complexity of being human," Swann explained in a statement. "Flaws and vulnerabilities are just one part of us. Our experiences are filtered through the conditions of our personhood; locked into our perceptions, our scenarios, and our knowledge structures, with perhaps only our potential for empathy and imagination as possible windows into each other's minds."
A first taste of what's to come from Strange Prison can be heard with "What Are You Gonna Do With Yourself," which arrives alongside a video. Read through the tracklist to find it in the player below.
Strange Prison:
1. Blow Away
2. Controls
3. What Are You Gonna Do With Yourself
4. Prison Builder
5. General Rule
6. The Kids Came By And Burned Down The Scene
7. Strange Prison
8. Free Yourself From All Harm
9. I Belong
10. Excess
11. Sew Their Mouths
12. I Wanna See Something Burn
13. End Song
Titled Strange Prison, Swann's latest will arrive May 18 through Saved By Vinyl/Moorworks/Tiny Room Records. Twelve tracks in length, Strange Prison was co-produced with Scott Munro (Preoccupations), Dan Mangan and Paul Chirka (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra), and is described as Swann's "most sonically exploratory and emotionally resonant release to date."
Strange Prison's songs concern the nuances of human existence, dealing with themes of "pain, alienation and our limitations," with end objective of "finding beauty to transcend the shittiness of the world."
"These songs are character studies in the complexity of being human," Swann explained in a statement. "Flaws and vulnerabilities are just one part of us. Our experiences are filtered through the conditions of our personhood; locked into our perceptions, our scenarios, and our knowledge structures, with perhaps only our potential for empathy and imagination as possible windows into each other's minds."
A first taste of what's to come from Strange Prison can be heard with "What Are You Gonna Do With Yourself," which arrives alongside a video. Read through the tracklist to find it in the player below.
Strange Prison:
1. Blow Away
2. Controls
3. What Are You Gonna Do With Yourself
4. Prison Builder
5. General Rule
6. The Kids Came By And Burned Down The Scene
7. Strange Prison
8. Free Yourself From All Harm
9. I Belong
10. Excess
11. Sew Their Mouths
12. I Wanna See Something Burn
13. End Song