Jessica Pratt announces her new LP, Here in the Pitch, will drop on May 3rd via Mexican Summer. Pratt enlisted the rhythm duo of bassist Spencer Zahn and percussionist Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms for Peace) to help realize her vision, alongside contributions from Ryley Walker, Peter Mudge (Mac Miller, J.I.D.), and Alex Goldberg. Along with the news, the singer/songwriter has shared lead single/video, “Life Is.” Additionally, Pratt announces a tour this spring and summer throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States (tickets on sale here this Friday @ 10am local time).

Album track “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.” “In a way, it’s kind of a false flag,” Pratt admits of this widescreen introduction to the album, considering the rest of the record is just as emotionally intimate and stark as fans have come to expect. “But I also feel like it’s a statement of intention.” Meanwhile, the lyrics are an impressionistic paean to the vagaries of ambition. “Life came and went and you didn’t land where you thought you would,” Pratt says of the song. “It’s the third act and you’re trying to climb back on the horse before it gets dark.” The video, co-directed by Colby Droscher and Pratt, was shot around New York City in late 2023 and looks to the films of Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage for inspiration.

“I became obsessed with figures emblematic of the dark side of the Californian dream while making this record,” Pratt explains, noting the influence of Los Angeles’ strange, seedy history and the bleak end of the hippy era. You can hear this playfully villainous perspective emerging in her imagistic lyrics, although the clearest shift is in her vocal performance. While Pratt admits to always seeking inspiration from voices that sound like they’ve been “drug through life,” she worked on these songs to develop a fuller, more physical style that draws from the dignified baritone of Scott Walker and the weathered theatrics of latter-day Judy Garland.

Jessica Pratt
Here in the Pitch
Tracklist

1. Life Is
2. Better Hate
3. World on a String
4. Get Your Head Out
5. By Hook or by Crook
6. Nowhere It Was
7. Empires Never Know
8. Glances
9. The Last Year

Jessica Pratt 2024 Tour Dates:

Fri. May 31 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
Sun. June 2 – Paris, FR @ L’Alhambra *
Mon. June 3 – Brussels, BE @ AB Theater *
Tue. June 4 – Amsterdam, NL @ Zonnehuis *
Thu. June 6 – London, UK @ Union Chapel *
Thu. June 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Fri. June 21 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy + Harriet’s
Sat. June 22 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
Wed. June 26 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Thu. June 27 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Wed. July 24 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Fri. July 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
Sat. July 27 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair

* = support from Joanna Sternberg