Cover art for The Big Freeze

As door-close buttons in modern elevators are placebos, it’s fortunate for the subject of Laura Stevenson’s subdued new single (from her forthcoming album The Big Freeze) that the button their finger trembles to push is a door-open button. In a song where Stevenson sings about time passively spent in waiting rooms, elevators, and bed, the dominant feeling isn’t powerlessness, but something warmer.

The title of the song, “Living Room, NY,” seems to mark the last geographic stop of any tour—home. Midway through the song, Stevenson sings, “We’ll be strangers for a week, stir crazy, lazy ‘til I leave again,” and suddenly the waiting room sung of in the song’s first half gives way to a homely living room. Re-acclimating to home between tours can be an emotionally confusing experience, but Stevenson ultimately embraces the stillness of those moments here. Like the double single (not on the album) released in December, the result is deeply affecting.

The Big Freeze will be released by Don Giovanni Records on March 29th. You can catch Laura Stevenson in Boston at The Sinclair on May 22nd, or at one of the other tour dates below.

2.7 – Gainesville, FL @ Changeville Festival
2.9 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (sold out)
3.14 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
5.3 – Washington DC @ Black Cat
5.12 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
5.14 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore
5.15 – Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
5.17 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
5.18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theatre
5.22 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair
5.23 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
5.24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
5.25 – Burlington, VT @ Arts Riot
5.29 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
5.30 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
6.3 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
6.5– Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
6.6 – Madison, WI @ Memorial Union Terrace / University of Wisconsin