American Tragic by Wax Idols is out Friday on Collect Records, and now you can stream the whole thing via SoundCloud. Previously released singles “Lonely You,” “Deborah,” and “I’m Not Going” will of course be present, and the full album reveals many more similar revelations.

Wax Idols are performing tonight at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn as a part of the Collect Records/Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Showcase along with No Devotion, Creepoid, and Foxes in Fiction. Proceeds from the event go to Callen-Lorde, an organization that provides health care services to underprilvelaged members of the LGBT community. Wax Idols then heads out on a month-long tour with Them Are Us Too. Full list of dates below.

You could say that a lot has happened since the release of Wax Idols’ 2013 album, Discipline + Desire; the band’s singer-songwriter, Hether Fortune, supported the album as best she could, spent some time in 2014 as a touring player in White Lung, went through a heartbreaking divorce, and then sat down to make American Tragic – the band’s long-awaited third album and first for Collect Records. But that’s not exactly how it went.

“Divorce is a part of this record, yes, but this is not an entirely sad album,” Fortune explains. “The whole spectrum of grief is represented here — shock, pain, anger, loneliness, and then finding a way to work through all of that and not only survive, but thrive. That’s what I was going through. I was kind of trying to save myself.”

In that sense, American Tragic stands out in the Wax Idols catalog for its profound empathy — elegiac in its approach, but connective by nature. Songs like “Lonely You” and “Goodbye Baby” divide the line between kiss-me and kiss-off, while others, such as “At Any Moment” or “Deborah,” provide emotional contrasts between their upbeat musical approach and downright icy lyrical counterparts. Fortune’s songwriting is also more concise and considered than ever, and this was largely intentional.

American Tragic is not only a deeply personal record, but a chiefly independent one: As a songwriter and true multi-instrumentalist, Fortune wrote and recorded everything but the drums on American Tragic — a feat only bolstered by the album’s compelling performances and meticulous execution, but a little known fact nonetheless. Co-produced by Fortune and Monte Vallier (Weekend, Mark Eitzel, The Soft Moon, Vaniish), the only other player on this record is drummer Rachel Travers.

American Tragic Tracklist:

1. A Violent Transgression
2. Lonely You
3. I’m Not Going
4. Deborah
5. Goodbye Baby
6. Glisten
7. Severely Yours
8. At Any Moment
9. Seraph

Wax Idols Tour Dates
Oct. 14th – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right (Brooklyn Vegan/Collect Records Showcase)
Oct. 18th – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill (w/ Screature & DJs Justin Anastasi and Omar)
Oct. 20th – Portland, OR – TBA
Oct. 21st – Seattle, WA – The Highline (w/ Charms & Dead Spells)
Oct. 24th – Lincoln, NE – Knickerbocker’s
Oct. 27th – Chicacgo, IL – The Empty Bottle
Oct. 28th – Detroit, MI – Marble Bar (w/ Blood Stone)
Oct. 31st – Brooklyn, NY – St. Vitus (w/ Azar Swan & DJ Becka Diamond)
Nov. 2nd – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Nov. 4th – Austin, TX – Mohawk
Nov. 5th – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tigers
Nov. 7th – Phoenix, AZ – TBA (w/ Body of Light & Ascetic House DJs)
Nov, 8th – Los Angeles, CA – Complex (w/ Pleasures & DJ Shannon Cornett)