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Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon has shared news of her fifth studio album Reward, and with it the lead single “Daylight Matters,” a thoughtful, buoyant ballad full of longing and self-reflection. Reward will be Le Bon’s first solo record since 2016’s Crab Day. It arrives May 24 on her new label Mexican Summer.
Le Bon wrote the new album while living in relative solitude in the Lakes District of the U.K. She spent her days learning to build solid wood furniture from scratch and her nights writing songs for Reward on her secondhand Meers piano. “There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,” Le Bon says.
Reward was eventually recorded around the U.S. and U.K. with Le Bon’s co-producer Samur Khouja, and frequent collaborators H.Hawkline and Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint.
“People hear the word ‘reward’ and they think that it’s a positive word, and to me it’s quite a sinister word in that it depends on the relationship between the giver and the receiver,” Le Bon says of the new album’s title. “I feel like it’s really indicative of the times we’re living in where words are used as slogans, and everything is slowly losing its meaning.”
Le Bon is hitting the road this summer for an extensive tour behind Reward. Listen to “Daylight Matters” below, as well as a Daytrotter session with Le Bon from 2011, and check out her full list of tour dates further down.
Cate Le Bon Tour Dates:
May
18 – Wrexham, U.K. @ Focus Wales Festival
24 – Rouen, France @ Rush Festival
25 – Toulouse, France @ Discipline Festival
26 – Madrid, Spain @ Independance Club
27 – Donostia, Spain @ Dabadaba
28 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound Festival
29 – Bordeaux, France @ iBoat
31 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret Festival
June
01 – Neustrelitz, Germany @ Immergut Festival
02 – Berlin, Germany @ Kantine Am Berghain
03 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Den Grå Hal (w/ Deerhunter)
04 – Aarhus, Denmark @ Tape
06 – Cologne, Germany @ Bumann & SOHN
07 – Brussels, Belgium @ Les Ateliers Claus
08 – Paris, France @ Villette Sonique
10 – London, U.K. @ Village Underground
22 – Calgary, Alb. @ Sled Island Festival
25 – Kingston, N.Y. @ BSP Kingston
26 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Elsewhere
27 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
28 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Boot & Saddle
29 – North Adams, Mass. @ Solid Sound Festival
30 – Somerville, Mass. @ ONCE Lounge
July
05 – Pioneertown, Calif. @ Pappy & Harriet’s
06 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Getty Center
07 – Santa Cruz, Calif. @ Moe’s Alley
09 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Chapel
12 – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir Lounge
13 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Crocodile Cafe
18 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue (w/ Parquet Courts)
19 – Chicago, Ill. @ Constellation
20 – Chicago, Ill. @ Pitchfork Festival
August
23 – Bethesda, U.K. @ Neuadd Ogwen
24 – West Lothian, U.K. @ Jupiter Rising Festival
25 – Edinburgh, U.K. @ Edinburgh Fringe Festival
27 – Manchester, U.K. @ Gorilla
28 – Leeds, U.K. @ Riley Smith Theatre
29 – Cardiff, U.K. @ Portland House
September
01 – Dorset, U.K. @ End of the Road Festival