Purity Ring Announce First New Album in Five Years, Share Bright Lead Single “Stardew”

Influential Canadian synth-pop duo Purity Ring will return with their first new album in over half a decade on April 3, when 4AD releases WOMB. Megan James and Corin Roddick have also shared their forthcoming third album’s lead single, closing cut “Stardew,” and announced an extensive North American tour that includes two-night stands at Brooklyn Steel in New York City and The Palladium in Los Angeles.

WOMB is wholly written, recorded, produced, and mixed by James and Roddick, and its 10 tracks comprise “a quest for comfort and the search for a resting place in a world where so much is beyond our control,” per a press release. The album follows Purity Ring’s 2012 breakout debut Shrines and 2015’s Another Eternity, as well as 2017 one-off “Asido,” which doesn’t appear on WOMB.

“Stardew” sounds of a piece with Another Eternity, which found James and Roddick moving beyond the trap-beat body horror of Shrines and appealing to a wider audience with their glossy, increasingly pop-oriented soundscapes. The song’s title, lyrics and instrumentation each evoke the celestial, with James singing, “Drive me like we daydream / to the edge of where you start / Leave me in the afterglow / The dew of dying stars,” over Roddick’s equally cosmic house beat, all sandwiched between the delicate tinkling of a music box.

Listen to “Stardew” and see the details of WOMB below, then find Purity Ring’s 2020 tour dates further down. You can preorder their new album here.

WOMB Tracklist:
01. rubyinsides
02. pink lightning
03. peacefall
04. i like the devil
05. femia
06. sinew
07. vehemence
08. silkspun
09. almanac
10. stardew

WOMB Album Art:

Purity Ring 2020 Tour Dates:

May
03 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Van Buren
04 – Tucson, Ariz. @ Rialto Theatre
07 – Austin, Texas @ ACL Live
08 – Dallas, Texas @ Bomb Factory
09 – Houston, Texas @ White Oak Music Hall
11 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Tabernacle
12 – Washington, D.C. @ Anthem
13 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Union Transfer
15 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Steel
16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
18 – Boston, Mass. @ House of Blues
20 – Toronto, Ont. @ Phoenix
23 – Bakersfield, Calif. @ Lightning in a Bottle Fest
26 – Chicago, Ill. @ Riviera Theatre
27 – Lawrence, Kan. @ Liberty Theatre
28 – Denver, Colo. @ Mission
29 – Ogden, Utah @ Ogden Twilight
30 – Boise, Idaho @ Knitting Factory

June
01 – Spokane, Ore. @ Knitting Factory
02 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Paramount
03 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Commodore Ballroom
04 – Portland, Ore. @ Roseland Ballroom
05 – Eugene, Ore. @ McDonald Theatre
07 – Oakland, Calif. @ Fox Theatre
10 – San Diego, Calif. @ Observatory North Park
11 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Palladium

July
18 – Suffolk, U.K. @ Latitude Festival

September
04 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Nalen
05 – Oslo, Norway @ Parkteatret
07 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Pumpehuset
08 – Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Theatre
09 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
11 – Brighton, U.K. @ Chalk
12 – Manchester, U.K. @ O2 Ritz
13 – Glasgow, U.K. @ SWG3
15 – Paris, France @ Trabendo
16 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
17 – Bristol, U.K. @ SWX
18 – London, U.K. @ Roundhouse