The Weather Station — the revered indie project of Toronto polymath Tamara Lindeman — returns today with news of her seventh album, previewed by new single "Neon Signs."
Humanhood arrives January 17 via Next Door Records / Fat Possum Records — following 2022's How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars, which Lindeman has described as the moon to the sun of 2021's acclaimed Ignorance. It was recorded in the autumn of 2023 over two sessions at Canterbury Music Company with drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Philippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng and bassist Ben Whiteley.
Lindeman co-produced Humanhood alongside Marcus Paquin, with Sam Amidon, James Elkington and Joseph Shabason also each adding their distinct touches prior to the record being mixed by Joseph Lorge. According to press notes, eschewing her retrospective approach to previous albums, the singer-songwriter wrote from the present as she tried to work through it.
"I wrote 'Neon Signs' at a moment of feeling confused, upside down, at that moment when even desire falls away, and dissociation cuts you loose from a story that while wrong, still held things together," Lindeman explained of the album's supple lead single. "The song came with multiple strands entwined; the way that something that is not true seems to have more energetic intensity than something that is, the confusion of being bombarded with advertising at a moment of climate emergency, the confusion of relationships where coercion is wrapped in the language of love. Ultimately though, isn't it all the same feeling?"
Watch the "Neon Signs" video — co-directed by the artist and Jared Raab — below, where you'll also find the full tracklist details.
Humanhood:
1. Descent
2. Neon Signs
3. Mirror
4. Window
5. Passage
6. Body Moves
7. Ribbon
8. Fleuve
9. Humanhood
10. Irreversible Damage
11. Lonely
12. Aurora
13. Sewing