Sufjan Stevens is sharing “Should Have Known Better” from his forthcoming album Carrie & Lowell today. Carrie & Lowell will be released March 31 on Stevens’ own Asthmatic Kitty Records.

Additionally, Asthmatic Kitty Records is hosting local silent listening parties with independent record stores and venues, giving fans the first chance to hear the album before its release. See below for details and visit http://www.carrieandlowell.com/listen.

To celebrate the release the album, Stevens will tour North America beginning in April. The headline dates include stops at New York’s Beacon Theatre and Washington, D.C.’s DAR Constitution Hall. Stevens will also headline the U.K.’s End of the Road festival this September.

Carrie & Lowell was recorded by Stevens alongside Casey Foubert, Laura Veirs, Nedelle Torrisi, Sean Carey, Ben Lester and Thomas Bartlett and mixed by Stevens, Bartlett and Pat Dillet. Thematically the 11 songs address life and death, love and loss, and the artist’s struggle to make sense of the beauty and ugliness of love. The album is named for Stevens’ mother and stepfather and is a return to Stevens’ folk roots.

A singer-songwriter currently living in Brooklyn, NY, Stevens’ preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan & Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1-5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6-10), and a BAM-commissioned programmatic tone poem for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (The BQE). In 2010 Stevens released an expansive EP (All Delighted People) and the full length The Age of Adz, a collection of songs partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson.

Stevens recently collaborated with New York City Ballet choreographer and dancer Justin Peck on Year of the Rabbit, a modern dance program set to a classical orchestration of Enjoy Your Rabbit and an original orchestral score commissioned for Peck’s ballet Everywhere We Go. Stevens’ second BAM commission Round-Up, an instrumental accompaniment to slow-motion rodeo footage, recently premiered at BAM’s Harvey Theater.

CARRIE & LOWELL LISTENING PARTIES
March 16 Atlanta, GA Criminal Records

March 17 Los Angeles, CA Origami Vinyl

SUFJAN STEVENS LIVE
April 9 Philadelphia, PA Academy of Music*
April 10 Philadelphia, PA Academy of Music*
April 11 New York, NY Beacon Theatre*
April 12 Hartford, CT The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts*
April 14 Portland, ME Merrill Auditorium*
April 15 Albany, NY The Palace Theater*
April 16 Cleveland, OH Cleveland Masonic Auditorium*
April 17 Columbus, OH Palace Theater*
April 18 Indianapolis, IN The Murat Theatre*
April 20 St. Louis, MO Peabody Opera House*
April 21 Kansas City, MO Midland Theater†
April 22 Minneapolis, MN Northrop Auditorium†
April 23 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater†
April 24 Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre†
April 25 Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre†
April 27 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple†
April 28 Grand Rapids, MI Covenant Fine Arts Center†
April 29 Toronto, ON Massey Hall†
April 30 Montreal, QC Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier / Place Des Artes†
May 1 Brooklyn, NY Kings Theatre‡
May 2 Brooklyn, NY Kings Theatre§
May 4 Boston, MA Citi Performing Arts Center – Wang Theatre§
May 5 Washington, D.C. DAR Constitution Hall§
May 6 Richmond, VA Altria Theater§
May 7 Durham, NC Durham Performing Arts Center§
May 9 New Orleans, LA Saenger Theatre§
May 10 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre§
May 11 Houston, TX Jones Hall for the Performing Arts§
May 12 Austin, TX Bass Concert Hall§
May 13 Austin, TX Bass Concert Hall§
June 2 San Diego, CA Copley Symphony Hall**
June 3 Los Angeles, CA Dorothy Chandler Pavilion**
June 4 Los Angeles, CA Dorothy Chandler Pavilion**
June 5 Oakland, CA Fox Theater**
June 6 Oakland, CA Fox Theater**
June 8 Portland, OR Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall**
June 9 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theatre**
June 10 Seattle, WA The Paramount Theatre**
June 11 Seattle, WA The Paramount Theatre**
July 17-18 Eaux Claires Festival Eau Claire, WI
September 6 Larmar Tree, UK End of the Road

*with Cold Specks
†with Little Scream
‡with Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens
§with Moses Sumney
**with Helado Negro
**with Helado Negro