On May 6, Little Scream will release Cult Following on Merge Records in the US and Dine Alone Records in Canada. Watch the trippy new video for the album’s first single, “Love as a Weapon” below.

Directed by Dan Huiting, the video is appropriately vivid for a song that features emotional directives via dance call. The clip effectively captures the essence of the song that The Line of Best Fit describes as a “scorchingly optimistic venture of blissful enthusiasm that’s impossible to not be elated by.”

Little Scream, a.k.a. Laurel Sprengelmeyer, says she began conceiving of Cult Following while visiting a friend in a small intentional community in northern Brazil that was on the verge of becoming a cult. “People were running around reading auras, interpreting each other’s dreams, and ‘living on light’ instead of eating—which was as compelling as it was absurd. I became very aware of the entropy of belief. You could feel the magnetism of ideas take shape and pull people into their center like a black hole… a thing so filled with light that its own gravity means that none of it can escape.”

With nods to Tina Turner, Tracey Thorn, and White Album-era Beatles, Cult Following ambitiously straddles intimate fragility with bombastic dancefloor-ready songs. It stuffs glorious eras of art pop into a weird modern package—a far more extroverted expansion of the cinematic landscapes and themes from Little Scream’s previous album. Sprengelmeyer elaborates: “The first record was a ‘bedroom adventure,’ as in, songs you write in your bedroom without a real consciousness of them ever being public. With this record, I was really engaged with what it meant to be a ‘songwriter’ and performer, and pushed myself to go further on all fronts.”

Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten, Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the National, Owen Pallett and Kyp Malone all make guest appearances on this album, but the world they inhabit is entirely Little Scream’s. Her voice acts as a tour guide through lush sonic landscapes carefully constructed with her creative partner, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry.

Little Scream will tour with Thao & The Get Down Stay Down in April and Land of Talk in May with even more dates coming soon.

Little Scream on tour:
Apr 09 Toronto, ON – Adelaide Hall ^
Apr 11 South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground ^
Apr 12 Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair ^
Apr 13 New York, NY – Webster Hall ^
Apr 14 Hamden, CT – The Space w/ Yuck
Apr 15 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ^
Apr 16 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts ^
Apr 17 Richmond, VA – The Broadberry ^
Apr 18 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle ^
May 11 Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount %
May 12 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace %
May 14 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right %
May 15 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom %
Jul 7-9 Lisbon, PT – NOS Alive 2016
Jul 22 New York, NY – Panorama Music and Arts Festival
Jul 22–24 Oro-Medonte, ON – WayHome Music & Arts Festival
Aug 12–13 Eau Claire, WI – Eaux Claires Festival

^ w/ Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
% w/ Land of Talk