Land of Talk have announced their new album Performances, set to be released on October 13th, along with a new single “You Beautiful Self.” Defying expectations, the influential Montreal-based outfit led by Lizzie Powell reinvents themself on their fifth LP. Though it trades muscular guitar rock for understated piano, the self-produced album is still the most urgent and personal of Powell’s to date. The swooning lead single “Your Beautiful Self” is a stunning showcase of the album’s illuminated self-belief and effortless poeticism, as piano and drums steadily build to a gentle chorus (“Take a deep breath / Let it out / Show the love in”) and an electric guitar riff punctures through, allowing for tangible catharsis to seep in.

“I realized right away that I was not feeling electric guitar for this album,” Powell says of Performances. “At first, I felt like something was wrong with me: Land of Talk is about guitars and me rocking out. But is that all I am? Can I get away with doing a Land of Talk record without a ton of electric guitar?” Instead of pandering to preconceived notions about their career so far, Powell decided to follow the muse and immerse themself into this new artistic lane. “I would write demos and think, ‘Oh, that doesn’t really kind of sound like Land of Talk,’” they say. “But then I realized that I’m Land of Talk.”

Of “Your Beautiful Self,” Powell explains: “This was one of the earliest songs I wrote for the record and it came out of the session I did at my friend’s house I rented in Sutton, Quebec. There’s a little bit of Echo and the Bunnymen’s ‘Under the Killing Moon’ in here. We kept reworking the song in different studios and different contexts but it really clicked when I swapped out guitar for piano. Taking things out and allowing myself to be spare made it work. I wanted to be anti-virtuosic here. Also, my voice goes up the octave on this song in a really fun way. It was a weird and fun personal challenge to get my voice to start out that low.”

Performances Tracklist:

1. Intro (high bright high)
2. Your Beautiful Self
3. Fluorescent Blood
4. Marry It
5. Rainbow Protection
6. Clarinet dance jam
7. Sitcom
8. Semi-Precious
9. August 13
10. Pwintiques

Pre-order Performances HERE.