Maps & Atlases announce new album & tour, share "Fall Apart"

Chicago indie/math rockers Maps & Atlases haven’t released an album since 2012’s Beware and Be Grateful, but that’s finally changing this year. Their new LP is called Lightlessness Is Nothing New and it comes out June 1 via Barsuk. It’s their first album since the departure of guitarist Erin Elders. who since formed Wedding Dress with Joan of Arc’s Bobby Burg.

Frontman Dave Davison had been playing solo shows in the time that Maps & Atlases were taking a break, and Lightlessness Is Nothing New was almost going to be a solo album, until he invited his Maps & Atlases bandmates Chris Hainley (drums) and Shiraz Dada (bass) to play on it, and it became the band’s return. “I thought Chris would do a good job on this, so I asked him to come play on it,” Dave told Noisey. “And that was when I realized that maybe this doesn’t need be a solo release. I like playing with Chris and Shiraz, and I’m asking them to play stuff on it, so I don’t know why it would be a solo record.”

The lead single is “Fall Apart,” which shares some musical common ground with the complex indie pop of Beware and Be Grateful and its predecessor Perch Patchwork, but it’s also clearly a departure, with more interest in danceable electronic pop than Maps & Atlases have shown before. Listen below.

Maps & Atlases have also announced a lengthy tour that begins in late May and wraps up in late June. It includes a Brooklyn show on June 20 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for that show are on AmEx presale now and the public on-sale begins Friday (4/6) at 10 AM. All dates are listed below.

Tracklist
The Fear
Fall Apart
Ringing Bell
Violet Threaded
Fog And The Fall
Learn How To Swim
Super Bowl Sunday
War Dreams
4/25
Wrong Kind Of Magic

Maps & Atlases — 2018 Tour Dates
5/29: 7th Street Entry – Minneapolis, MN
6/01: Upstream Music Festival – Seattle, WA
6/02: Volume Music Festival – Spokane, WA
6/03: Holocene – Portland, OR
6/06: Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA
6/07: Lodge Room – Los Angeles, CA
6/08: Casbah – San Diego, CA
6/09: Rebel Lounge – Phoenix, AZ
6/10: Sister Bar – Albuquerque, NM
6/12: Club Dada – Dallas, TX
6/13: Scoot Inn – Austin, TX
6/14: White Oak Upstairs – Houston, TX
6/15: Parish @ House of Blues – New Orleans, LA
6/16: Georgia Theatre – Athens, GA
6/17: Cat’s Cradle – Back Room – Carrboro, NC
6/19: Rock & Roll Hotel – Washington, DC
6/20: Music Hall of Williamsburg – New York, NY
6/21: Sonia – Boston, MA
6/22: Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
6/23: Cattivo – Pittsburgh, PA
6/24: Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
6/26: Rumba – Columbus, OH
6/27: El Club – Detroit, MI
6/28: Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
6/30: Fountain Square Music Series – Cincinnati, OH