I think most would agree with me when I say that Alt-J never really topped their debut, but that’s not through lack of trying. An Awesome Wave was so fresh and clean that when we all got our first taste of the band, it was hard to put your finger on where this sound came from, and what they would end up doing next. The next few albums churned out a few great singles, “3WW” from RELAXER, and “Hunger Of The Pine” from This Is All Yours are personal highlights, but overall the LPs never quite reached the same level of cohesion that the debut did. That doesn’t mean the band have lost all of their charm though. The amount of off the wall ideas that you can squeeze into a series of albums over a decade, and still come out with something that sounds, ultimately, like an Alt-J album… is astounding. The pure creativity has always been the one thing you can rely on.

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the album that changed our lives, we’re playing an extra show at Brixton Academy where we will play An Awesome Wave in full. Tickets on Friday 22nd April, 10am BST. https://t.co/MDdbFL3N82 pic.twitter.com/bDkunsytla

— Δ (alt-J) (@alt_J) April 14, 2022

The show comes in the middle of an already announced tour of the UK, a 14^th date has been added to the beginning of the group’s now 4-night residency of Brixton Academy. About half of the tour has already sold out, but you can see here for full details on any of the full tour. See below for the full list of dates on The Dream Tour:

6/5/22 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
7/5 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
9/5 – O2 Academy – Leeds
10/5 – O2 Academy – Bristol
12/5 – Rock City – Nottingham
13/5 – O2 Apollo – Manchester
17/5 – O2 Academy Brixton – London (An Awesome Wave Anniversary Show)
18/5 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
19/5 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
20/5 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
22/5 – Olympia Theatre – Dublin
23/5 – Olympia Theatre – Dublin
25/5 – The Telegraph Building – Belfast
27/5 – O2 Academy – Birmingham

Hard Drive Gold
Wednesday
Pre-save at https://t.co/v0qNNT3PkY pic.twitter.com/bUJhRJoxxp

— Δ (alt-J) (@alt_J) January 3, 2022

In a statement released around the announcement of the album the band claim their new album shows, “both beauty and darkness […] often seamlessly merging on the same track, a purposeful choice that pays dividends across the record” and will feature, “true-crime inspired stories and tales of Hollywood and the Chateau Marmont [as well as some of the bands] most personal moments to-date”. You can pre-order the album, in one (or several) of its many formats here. You can also enter a draw to win “a totally one-off Larrivee P-O5 acoustic guitar, signed by lyricist Joe and covered in his handwritten lyrics for Get Better.” Tickets cost £5.00 with all proceeds going to Plan International, “a global children’s charity working to create lasting equality for girls and protect the rights of all children.” Hear the recent single, and the song behind these handwritten lyrics below.

Accompanying the new album comes the bands recently expanded UK tour. Due to significant demand, extra dates were added to shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, and Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. See here for full ticket information.

Regarding the dangers of touring in today’s day and age; the band’s drummer, Thom Green, explained how the group will have to “be extra vigilant,” in an interview with the BBC. “Whatever we have to do, that’s what we’ll do, because it’ll be so worth it just to get on stage again.” This must mean a lot coming from Green after he, like millions of others, has spent a large portion of the pandemic shielding due to a rare condition causing him to have a kidney operation as a student. Then upon contracting COVID-19 in the summer Green spent a week in the hospital, “I’m actually fortunate that I’m ok and I’m back to normal, but I don’t want that to happen again.”

See below Alt-J’s planned UK tour:

7/5/22 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
9/5 – O2 Academy – Leeds
13/5 – O2 Apollo – Manchester
18/5 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
19/5 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
22/5 – Olympia Theatre – Dublin
23/5 – Olympia Theatre – Dublin
25/5 – The Telegraph Building – Belfast
27/5 – O2 Academy – Birmingham