Okkervil River's last album was 2013's The Silver Gymnasium. Will Sheff is back this year with Away, out September 9 via ATO. He recorded the new album at a Long Island studio on the same Neve 8068 console that recorded Steely Dan’s Aja and John Lennon’s Double Fantasy. The album features contributions from Marissa Nadler, Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg (formerly a member of Okkervil River), the classical ensemble yMusic, and more. Check out 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

Watch Okkervil River perform at an open mic night on Pitchfork.tv: