At long last, Alabama Shakes have returned with their first new release in ten years, “Another Life”. The standalone track arrives amid the Grammy-winning group’s first tour since 2017 [get tickets].
“Another Life” recaptures the vintage Southern soul-meets-garage rock sound that made Alabama Shakes an overnight sensation with 2012’s breakout debut Boys & Girls. While at first the song seems like it could have been cut from singer/guitarist Brittany Howard‘s acclaimed pair of solo albums, 2019’s breakout Jaime and last year’s What Now, the track’s gradual build combusts into a supernova of Howard’s wailing and the blaring fuzzed-out drone of Heath Fogg‘s guitar for a sound that is uniquely Alabama Shakes. Howard’s lyrics conceivably allude to the group’s long-awaited return, with the chorus, “Can we try again (Can we try again in another life?) / One more time again (Can we try in another life?)”.
“When I wrote ‘Another Life’, I was thinking about all the lives we carry,“ Howard said of the song the band recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios with longtime collaborator Shawn Everett. “The ones we’re living right now, the ones that slipped away because of different choices, the what ifs, the what wasn’t meant to be, the goodbyes, and the chance encounters that feel divine. This song is about those threads and how they stretch across time and space, connecting every version of who we are. It’s about letting them come together, letting them harmonize, and realizing that goodbye isn’t really goodbye. It’s more like I’ll see you later. A collective story that never stops unfolding. I’m glad we opened this door into this reality of us making music together again.”
Alabama Shakes’ last announced performance was in August 2017 at the Osheaga Festival, with the band going on hiatus the following year. While Howard made waves as a solo singer-songwriter, the band fell silent until December 2024, when Howard, Fogg, and bassist Zac Cockrell staged a surprise reunion at a holiday benefit concert in Tuscaloosa. Ben Tanner, who has previously toured with Alabama Shakes as a keyboardist, took on drum duties in place of Steve Johnson, who pleaded guilty to violating a domestic violence protection order in 2020. Then in February came the announcement of the band’s first tour in eight years, with not-so-subtle hints about new music dropping along the way.
Check out “Another Life”, the first new release from Alabama Shakes in a decade, below or on your preferred streaming platform. The band’s reunion tour will run through the end of September with dates in the Midwest, Northeast, New Orleans, and Texas. Find tickets and tour dates here.
Alabama Shakes — “Another Life”