Okkervil River will return this year with Away, which is due out September 9th via ATO. He recorded the new album at a Long Island studio on the Neve 8068 console that recorded Steely Dan’s Aja and John Lennon’s Double Fantasy. The album will contributions from Marissa Nadler, Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg (who used a member of Okkervil River), the classical ensemble yMusic, and more. Listen to the album’s opening track “Okkervil River R.I.P.,” and find the band’s upcoming tour dates below.

Sheff talked about the album’s creation in a statement:

2013-2015 had been a strange time for me. I lost some connections in a music industry that was visibly falling apart. Some members of the backing band left, moving on to family life or to their own projects. I spent a good deal of time in hospice sitting with my grandfather, who was my idol, while he died. I felt like I didn’t know where I belonged. When there was trouble at home, a friend offered me her empty house in the Catskills where I could go and clear my head. New songs were coming fast up there, so I set myself the challenge of trying to write enough to make a whole record. I didn’t really think about what the record was going to be or if I’d even release it—the idea was just to write quickly and directly. Eventually, I realized I was kind of writing a death story for a part of my life that had, buried inside of it, a path I could follow that might let me go somewhere new.

Away:

01 Okkervil River R.I.P.
02 Call Yourself Renee
03 The Industry
04 Comes Indiana Through The Smoke
05 Judey On A Street
06 She Would Look For Me
07 Mary On A Wave
08 Frontman In Heaven
09 Days Spent Floating (In The Halfbetween)

Okkervil River:

06-30 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Bar-B-Q %
07-01 Dallas, TX – The Bomb Factory %
07-02 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall %
07-03 San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theater in San Antonio %
07-14 Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall
07-15 Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace
07-16 Hudson, NY – Club Helsinki
07-17 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
07-20 Brooklyn, NY – National Sawdust
09-14 Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair *
09-15 Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair *
09-16 Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount
09-19 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club *
09-20 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle *
09-21 Atlanta, GA – Terminal West at King Plow Arts Center *
09-23 Memphis, TN – 1884 Lounge *
09-24 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks *
09-30 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom *
10-01 Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern *
10-04 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
10-05 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
10-07 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom *
10-08 Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre *
10-10 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge *
10-11 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater *
10-13 Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Café *
10-14 Chicago, IL – Metro #
10-15 Ferndale, MI – The Magic Bag ^
10-16 Millvale, PA – Mr. Small’s Theatre ^
10-18 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ^
10-30 Oslo, Norway – Parkteatret
10-31 Gothenburg, Sweden – Pustervik
11-02 Stockholm, Sweden – Debaser Strand
11-03 Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
11-04 Weissenhauser Strand, Germany – Rolling Stone Weekender
11-05 Amsterdam, Holland – Paradiso Nord
11-07 Paris, France – Petit Bain
11-08 Brussels, Belgium – Botanique Rotonde
11-10 London, England – Islington Assembly Hall
11-11 Bristol, England – Thekla
11-12 Manchester, England – Gorilla
11-13 Glasgow, Scotland – Stereo

* with Landlady
# with Lip Talk
^ with Landlady & Lip Talk
% with Shovels & Rope, Matt Vasquez, and Girl In A Coma