Bon Iver member S. Carey will release a new album entitled Break Me Open via Jagjaguwar on April 22. Carey previewed his first solo LP since 2018’s Hundred Acres by dropping its title track and also confirmed 22 tour dates in support of Break Me Open.
The multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter started work on the 10-track record at his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. S. Carey then teamed with co-producers Chris Messina and Zach Hanson at a studio in Gualala, California. Break Me Open documents a rough period of Carey’s life in which he dealt with grief and loss as he experienced the breakup of his marriage and the loss of his father all while the pandemic loomed large. The second longest-tenured Bon Iver collaborator let his emotions flow into his music.
S. Carey shared the following about the experience and the resulting album:
“Change is good. Fucking hard, but good. For many, to say the last two years have been difficult would be an understatement. Stress and uncertainty about life in general, family, friends, kids, even Mother Earth has grown exponentially. There is a heaviness to human consciousness right now, a darkness at the surface.
Break Me Open is about love – past, present, and future. It’s about fatherhood – the overwhelming feeling of deep love for my kids and the melancholy of watching them grow up right before my eyes. It’s about accepting my faults and wrongdoings, exposing myself, and trying to know myself better than I did the day before. But above the darkness, it’s a message of hope, honesty, and growth. It’s a call to be vulnerable: Break Me Open.”
The song “Break Me Open” features bass and drums from Hanson and horns arranged by CJ Camerieri (CARM). S. Carey provided the rest of the instrumentation and haunting falsetto vocals. Watch the video for the track which was captured in Eau Claire by director Rudy Rubio:
S. Carey will start his 2022 headlining tour with a hometown show at Eau Claire’s Masonic Temple on April 28. Additional spring dates follow in Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Somerville (Massachusetts), Holyoke (Massachusetts), Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Columbus, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. The summer portion of the tour includes July concerts in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, Denver and Omaha.
Break Me Open Tracklist
- Dark
- Starless
- Sunshower
- Island
- Waking Up
- Desolate
- Paralyzed
- Where I Was
- Break Me Open
- Crestfallen
