Indie singer-song­writer Lael Neale’s lat­est offer­ing Down on the Free­way from her upcom­ing album is a cap­ti­vat­ing and per­son­al explo­ration of Los Ange­les, accom­pa­nied by a self-direct­ed video that’s just as entranc­ing. Down on the Free­way cap­tures the pulse of con­tem­po­rary LA, the city Lael returned to after spend­ing three years back in rur­al Vir­ginia dur­ing Covid. She reflects on its root­less­ness and rest­less ener­gy, its sur­face-lev­el anonymi­ty and yet, beneath it all, the video reveals a rich vein of cre­ativ­i­ty thrives.

Dri­ven by a hyp­not­ic motorik beat, with Lael’s swoon­ing vocals and off­beat phras­ing lay­ered over­top, this infec­tious sin­gle is a tan­ta­lis­ing pre­view of her forth­com­ing album, Alto­geth­er Stranger, out 2nd May on Sub Pop. As Lael her­self says about the song, “This song is spe­cif­ic to Los Ange­les. The drum machine real­ly wrote the song. It con­jures the end­less sea of cars. Mov­ing, bot­tle­necked, bumper to bumper.  I’m always amazed that so many of us have some­where to go.”

Themes of polar­i­ty recur through­out Neal’s work – coun­try vs. city, human­i­ty vs. tech­nol­o­gy, iso­la­tion vs. soci­ety. This album is her third col­lab­o­ra­tion with pro­duc­er Guy Blakeslee who helped expand the tonal palette while stay­ing true to Neale’s com­mit­ment to the raw imme­di­a­cy and hand-made inti­ma­cy of home recording.

For the video she inter­prets the sea of cars in human form as a fash­ion cat­walk, an end­less pro­ces­sion going nowhere. It opens with Lael in a mir­ror-cov­ered out­fit, a con­fi­dent yet still vul­ner­a­ble fig­ure in the car-dom­i­nat­ed streets of LA, leads into a cat­walk pro­ces­sion (which looks a whole lot more fun than the usu­al design­er shows) and ends with a par­ty in which, intrigu­ing­ly, Lael drops a QR tab to float off… who knows where.

Down on the Free­way is writ­ten by Neale. The album was pro­duced and mixed by Blakeslee at home in Los Ange­les and mas­tered by Chris Coady

Lael Neale sin­gle Down on the Free­way out now, album Alto­geth­er Stranger on Sub Pop, 2nd May
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UK/EU Live Dates
Fri. May 02 – Lon­don, UK – Rough Trade East
Sat. May 10 – Dublin, IE – Workman’s Cel­lar *
Sun. May 11 – Belfast, UK – McHughs *
Wed. May 14 – Lau­sanne, CH – Le Romandie*
Thu. May 15 – Dijon, FR – La Vapeur *
Fri. May 16 – Paris, FR – Le Hasard Ludique *
Sat. May 17 – Brus­sels, BE – Les Nuits Botanique 
Mon. May 19 – Ams­ter­dam, NL – DOKA *
Tue. May 20 – Ham­burg, DE – Nach­ta­syl *
Wed. May 21 – Berlin, DE – Kan­tine am Berghain *
Fri. May 23 – Copen­hagen, DK – Huset 
Sat. May 24 – Stock­holm, SE – Echo Three Fest 
Tue. May 27 – Bris­tol, UK – The Louisiana *
Wed. May 28 – Lon­don, UK – Omeara *
Thu. May 29 – Man­ches­ter, UK – YES Base­ment *
Fri. May 30 – New­cas­tle, UK – Cum­ber­land Arms *
Sat. May 31 – Glas­gow, UK – Hug & Pint *
Sun.Jun 08 – Guastal­la, IT – Hand­made Fes­ti­val
Thu. Jun.12 – Lux­em­bourg, LU – Roton­des *
Sat. Jun. 14 – Hil­varen­beek, NL – Best Kept Secret Festival