Shearwater Announce The New World, Share “Daydream Unbeliever” and “More And More”

Shearwater are back after a relatively quiet stretch, and the Austin indie rock band is using the announcement of The New World to mark a clear next phase. Their first album since 2022’s The Great Awakening arrives with two new tracks, “Daydream Unbeliever” and “More And More,” both out now.

The record finds the band operating outside the major-label ecosystem they spent years moving through. The New World is self-released with help from Secretly Distribution, following six albums released through Sub Pop and Matador. It was also crowdfunded and self-produced, a setup that says as much about the group’s current position as the music itself. Shearwater are making the case for a more independent, less mediated version of their catalog at a moment when that kind of retooling feels less like a detour than a career recalibration.

Frontman Jonathan Meiburg frames the new songs in stark terms:

“If you’re like us, you wake up feeling like the world’s on fire, and hoping you could reckon with it if you knew where to begin,”

he says.

“‘Daydream Unbeliever’ and ‘More And More’ come from this uneasy place. If they help you feel a little less insane, welcome home.”

It’s the kind of statement that situates the songs in the same anxious register as the title suggests, without overexplaining what the music is meant to do.

“Daydream Unbeliever” also comes with a notable guest turn from Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, who plays gong on the track. The album’s guest list stretches further still, pulling in multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, saxophonist and clarinetist Doug Wieselman, qanunist Farouz Zriek, guitarist Leo Abrahams, ngonist Mamadou Kouyate, percussionists Mahamadou Tounkara and Moctar Kouyate of Malian group Ngoni Ba, and drummer Thor Harris. It’s an ensemble that suggests scope, but also the kind of carefully assembled detail that has long mattered in Shearwater’s orbit.

The New World arrives on 7/31 via Polyborus / Secretly. The album’s tracklist runs from “Even Song” and “More And More” through “Daydream Unbeliever,” “A Mink In The Dusk,” and “The Only Sound I’m Afraid Of,” before closing on “You And Your Dog.” Pre-order it here.

Hear “Daydream Unbeliever” and “More And More” below.