Anna Calvi Announces First New Album in Five Years, Shares Lead Single

Anna Calvi has announced her first album since 2013’s Mercury Prize-nominated One Breath, Hunter, out Aug. 31 via Domino.

The last new music we heard from Calvi was her 2014 EP Strange Weather, on which she collaborated with David Byrne. In a recent tweet, she said she waited until she felt her new music was “the best and most honest art I could possibly make.” That honesty comes across in Hunter’s first single, “Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy.”

I’ve waited 5 years for this moment, waited until I felt this music was right, that I could stand behind it and feel it’s the best and most honest art I could possibly make. I gave everything to this record, all my love, all my passion, every inch of me is found in this music.

— Anna Calvi (@annacalvi) June 6, 2018

The song, released Wednesday along with a stylized visual directed by William Kennedy and choreographed by Aaron Sillis, alludes to the restrictive nature of gender roles in society. This exploration of identity permeates the entirety of Hunter, as Calvi expresses in a statement: “I want to explore how to be something other than just what I’ve been assigned to be. I want to explore a more subversive sexuality … The intent of this record is to be primal and beautiful, vulnerable and strong, to be the hunter and the hunted.”

Hunter is out Aug. 31. Check out the video for “Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy” along with Calvi’s 2012 Daytrotter session and the Hunter tracklist and album art below.

Hunter Tracklist:
01. As A Man
02. Hunter
03. Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy
04. Indies Or Paradise
05. Swimming Pool
06. Alpha
07. Chain
08. Wish
09. Away
10. Eden

Hunter Album Art: