News : MUNA’s Katie Gavin announces debut solo album ‘What A Relief’ with tender single ‘Aftertaste’ and details of US tour and London show

MUNA‘s Katie Gavin has announced her debut solo album ‘What A Relief’ and has shared the LP’s tender lead single ‘Aftertaste’.

‘What A Relief’ is set for release on October 25 via Phoebe Bridgers‘ Saddest Factory Records. You can pre-order / pre-save it here. Comprised of 12 tracks, the album features a collaboration with Mitski on the song ‘As Good As It Gets’. According to a press release, Gavin has described the album as “Lilith Fair-core”.

“This record spans a lot of my life,” she added.”It’s about having a really deep desire for connection, but also encountering all the obstacles that stood in my way to be able to achieve that, patterns of isolation or even boredom with the real work of love. ‘What A Relief’ explores and portrays it honestly, without shame.”

Along with the announcement of the album, Gavin also released ‘Aftertaste’, the LP’s tender lead single that sees her sing about the optimism of being drawn to someone and embracing the feeling that the relationship may work.

“That song takes place inside of the magnetic force, when I’m really drawn to somebody and still feeling like it’s gonna work,” she explained.  “Sometimes it’s fun to surrender to that feeling – I think a lot of songwriters have a strong relationship with romantic fantasy.”

She continued: “I thought this song would be a good place to start because to me it kind of serves as a bridge, sonically and thematically, between MUNA’s world and the world we are
going to with the solo record.

“‘Aftertaste’ is a sweet song about carrying a torch for someone, realizing that you are going out to concerts and parties hoping to run into them there. The song is a playing out of a fantasy, really, both because it involves confessing your crush and finding out that it is reciprocated.”

Co-directed by Gavin and Alexa Viscius, the song’s accompanying music video sees the singer posing as the subject of a nude drawing class. Speaking about the video, Gavin shared: “Naomi McPherson helped me come up with the idea for the video, in which I’m the
subject of a nude drawing class, and Alexa Viscius co-directed with me and brought
in an amazing team of Chicago creatives to bring it to fruition. Filming in the city I’m
from felt very right for introducing this solo work. Back to my roots, if you will.”

‘What A Relief’ tracklist is: 

1. ‘I Want It All’
2. ‘Aftertaste’
3. ‘The Baton’
4. ‘Casual Drug Use’
5. ‘As Good As It Gets’ ft. Mitski
6. ‘Sanitized’
7. ‘Sketches’
8. ‘Inconsolable’
9. ‘Sparrow’
10. ‘Sweet Abby Girl’
11. ‘Keep Walking’
12. ‘Today’

Gavin has also announced a string of live dates in support of ‘What A Relief’. MUNA are set to perform at the historic Newport Folk Festival this weekend (July 26-28) where Gavin will play a special, intimate debut live gig. She will be playing intimate rooms across the US as well as a show in London later this year.

A ticket pre-sale will be available for those who sign up to receive the pre-sale code here. General ticket sales will commence on Friday (August 2). Visit here to purchase US tickets and here for UK tickets. Check out a full list of tour dates below.

Katie Gavin 2024 US and UK tour dates are: 

JULY
27 – Newport Folk Festival – Newport, RI*^

SEPTEMBER
7 – Evanston Folk Festival – Evanston, IL*
11 – The Old Church – London, UK^

NOVEMBER
19 – Neumos – Seattle WA^
20 – The Old Church – Portland OR^
22 – Bimbo’s 365 Club – SF, CA^
24 – Pappy + Harriet’s – Pioneertown, CA^
25 – Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever – Los Angeles, CA^

DECEMBER
8 – The Blue Room – Nashville, TN^
10 – Bowery Ballroom – NY, NY^
13 – The Atlantis – Washington DC^
14 – Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA^
16 – The Great Hall – Toronto, ON^
18 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL^
* w/ MUNA
^ headline

Gavin’s debut album comes two years after MUNA’s latest release, 2022’s ‘MUNA‘. In a four-star review of the album, NME shared: “By now, it should be clear that this lot know how to pen a whopper of a pop anthem – that remains apparent here – but more crucially ‘MUNA’ also serves as solid evidence of a band with many more chapters of evolution up their sleeves yet.”

In other news, earlier this year, the trio’s Naomi McPherson landed their first acting role as Janis Ian in Jason Reitman’s forthcoming film SNL 1975.