Cate Le Bon, has announced her new album Reward, will come out on May 24th via Mexican Summer. Reward is the follow-up to last year’s DRINKS release “Hippo Lite” (her collaboration with Tim Presley). With the news of the new album, Cate Le Bon she shared the lead-track “Daylight Matters.”

Le Bon talks a bit about the process; “There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,” she says, recounting the year living solitarily in the Lakes District of the U.K which gave way to Reward. By day, ever the polymath, Le Bon painstakingly learnt to make solid wood tables, stools and chairs from scratch; by night she looked to a second-hand Meers — the first piano she had ever owned — for company, “windows closed to absolutely everyone”, and accidentally poured her heart out.

“People hear the word ‘reward’ and they think that it’s a positive word” says Le Bon, “and to me it’s quite a sinister word in that it depends on the relationship between the giver and the receiver. 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.” The record, then, signals a scrambling to hold onto meaning; it is a warning against lazy comparisons and face values. It is a sentiment nicely summed up through her woodwork: “Always keep your hand behind the chisel.”

The album was recorded across America and the UK, with friends and collaborators (including Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, H.Hawkline and Samur Khouja, who co-produced the album with Le Bon), There will be an exclusive version of Reward available on the Mexican Summer website, red vinyl with an art print and MP3 download with the pre-order.

Cate Le Bon
Reward
Tracklist

1. Miami
2. Daylight Matters
3. Home To You
4. Mother’s Mother’s Magazines
5. Here It Comes Again
6. Sad Nudes
7. The Light
8. Magnificent Gestures
9. You Don’t Love Me
10. Meet The Man

Cate Le Bon
Live

Sat. May 18 – Wrexham, UK @ Focus Wales Festival
Fri. May 24 – Rouen, FR @ Rush Festival
Sat. May 25 – Toulouse, FR @ Discipline Festival
Sun. May 26 – Madrid, ES @ Independance Club
Mon. May 27 – Donostia, ES @ Dabadaba
Tue. May 28 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound Festival
Wed. May 29 – Bordeaux, FR @ iBoat
Fri. May 31 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
Sat. June 1 – Neustrelitz, DE @ Immergut Festival
Sun. June 2 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine Am Berghain
Mon. June 3 – Copenhagen, DK @ Den Grå Hal (w/ Deerhunter)
Tue. June 4 – Aarhus, DK @ Tape
Thu. June 6 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
Fri. June 7 – Brussels, BE @ Les Ateliers Claus
Sat. June 8 – Paris, FR @ Villette Sonique
Mon. June 10 – London, UK @ Village Underground
Sat. June 22 – Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Festival
Tue. June 25 – Kingston, NY @ BSP Kingston
Wed. June 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Thu. June 27 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Fri. June 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
Sat. June 29 – North Adams, MA @ Solid Sound Festival
Sun. June 30 – Somerville, MA @ ONCE Lounge
Fri. July 5 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
Sat. July 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Getty Center
Sun. July 7 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
Tue. July 9 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Fri. July 12 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Sat. July 13 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile Cafe
Thu. July 18 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue (w/ Parquet Courts)
Fri. July 19 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation
Sat. July 20 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Festival
Fri. Aug. 23 – Bethesda, UK @ Neuadd Ogwen
Sat. Aug. 24 – West Lothian, UK @ Jupiter Rising Festival
Sun. Aug. 25 – Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Tue. Aug. 27 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Wed. Aug. 28 – Leeds, UK @ Riley Smith Theatre
Thu. Aug. 29 – Cardiff, UK @ Portland House
Sun. Sept. 1 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival