Preoccupations have shared the details of their forthcoming fifth studio album — news they've shared alongside a North American tour announcement and the LP's lead single, "Focus."
Ill at Ease is due May 9 on Born Losers Records. Co-produced by the Calgary band's Matthew Flegel and Scott "Monty" Munro, it's their first full-length since 2022's Arrangements.
"The well of dark things to write about seemingly has not dried up, and lyrically, it's where I still tend to draw from," Flegel said of the record's themes. "Draining all my anxieties into a song is often the only way I can get through a day."
The songwriter continued:
Some songs exist in a world with barren plains of burnt earth, covered in a dust of shame, dread, death, where all the things I love are things that kill me. Some come from the perspective of another distant world, looking skyward into a science fiction ocean of space, solitude, slight hope. Sometimes I'm looking around at the world that we live in now with incredulity, hilariously dissatisfied with how it's all turned out, and assuming that it can't be long before it's all over. Some songs are just a reflection of me looking down at my feet while I trudge along wondering what I'm doing with myself, and if the ground is going to fall out from underneath me at any given moment.
Lead track "Focus" is the shadowy post-punk you've come to expect from Preoccupations, but it has a newfound glisten to it. Give it a listen below, where you'll also find the tracklist details and tour information. The band have Canadian shows this spring in Montreal (May 22), Ottawa (May 23), Toronto (May 24), Calgary (June 4) and Vancouver (June 6), and tickets go on sale Friday (February 14) at 10 a.m. local time.
Ill at Ease:
1. Focus
2. Bastards
3. Ill at Ease
4. Retrograde
5. Andromeda
6. Panic
7. Sken
8. Krem2
Preoccupations 2025 Tour Dates:
05/22 Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz PDB
05/23 Ottawa, ON - The 27 Club
05/24 Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
05/27 Detroit, MI - Lager House
05/31 Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle
06/01 Minneapolis, - MN 7th St Entry
06/04 Calgary, AB - Commonwealth
06/06 Vancouver, BC - Wise Hall
06/07 Seattle, WA - Madame Lou's
06/08 Portland, OR - Polaris Hall
06/10 San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
06/12 Los Angeles, CA - Lodge Room
06/13 San Diego, CA - Casbah
06/17 Austin, TX - Parish
06/18 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
06/20 Nashville, TN - The Blue Room-Third Man Records
06/21 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade(Purgatory)
06/22 Raleigh, NC - Kings
06/24 Washington, D.C. - Songbyrd Record Cafe
06/25 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
06/27 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
06/29 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Upstairs