Johanna Warren announces new album 'Lessons for Mutants' & tour, shares "I'd Be Orange"
Johanna Warren has announced a new album, Lessons for Mutants, out October 7 via Wax Nine, the Carpark imprint of Speedy Ortiz/Sad13’s Sadie Dupuis (pre-order). Lessons for Mutants is Johanna’s sixth studio album and marks a change of pace for her career. Prior to the pandemic, she had been touring and releasing new music at a near-constant rate. Although she began recording Lessons for Mutants in 2018 (in tandem with her last album Chaotic Good), it didn’t come together until she left LA and started quarantining in rural Wales. This is Johanna’s first album recorded live to tape, on which she says:
Tape forces you to commit to a performance, eccentricities and all. The little glitches and anomalies that we’re tempted to “correct” are often what make a thing magical… There’s this unspoken rule in modern music—modern life, really—that everything needs to be Auto-Tuned and ‘on the grid.’ This record is an act of resistance against that. There’s beauty and power in our aberrations, if we can embrace them.
Today Johanna releases lead single and music video “I’d Be Orange,” a folk rock anthem (and the first track on the album) in which she explores the costs of getting hurt for love. The video, which Johanna co-directed with Richey Beckett, is simultaneously stoic and absurd, depicting the singer as a maligned ice cream scooper. Watch “I’d Be Orange” and check the album art and tracklist below.
You can catch Johanna Warren on tour once again this fall in the US, UK, and Europe, including a NYC show on October 22 at Trans Pecos in Ridgewood, Queens. All dates below.
Lessons for Mutants Tracklist
1. I’d Be Orange
2. Piscean Lover
3. Oaths
4. County Fair
5. Tooth For A Tooth
6. :/
7. Lessons For Mutants
8. Hi Res
9. Good Is Gone
10. Involvolus
Johanna Warren Tour Dates
Tue. Oct. 4 – Seattle, WA @ Here After
Thu. Oct. 6 – Portland, OR @ Lollie Pop
Sat. Oct. 8 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
Sun. Oct. 9 – Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
Thu. Oct. 13 – Washington, DC @ Quarry House
Fri. Oct. 14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Government Center
Thu. Oct. 20 – Cincinnati, OH @ Motr
Sat. Oct. 22 – Ridgewood, NY @ Trans Pecos
Fri. Nov. 4 – Milton Keynes, UK @ Craufurd Arms
Sat. Nov. 5 – Newcastle, UK @ Underground
Sun. Nov. 6 – Leeds, UK @ Oporto
Mon. Nov. 7 – Manchester, UK @ Yes (Basement)
Wed. Nov. 9 – Cambridge, UK @ The Portland Arms
Thu. Nov. 10 – Ramsgate, UK @ Ramsgate Music Hall
Fri. Nov. 11 – London, UK @ Pitchfork London
Sun. Nov. 13 – Birmingham, UK @ Sunflower Lounge
Mon. Nov. 14 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
Tue. Nov. 15 – Southampton, UK @ Joiners
Wed. Nov. 16 – Brighton, UK @ Komedia
Thu. Nov. 17 – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach
Sat. Nov. 19 – Paris, FR @ Pitchfork Paris
