Preoccupations announce new album & tour, share “Focus”

Canadian group Preoccupations have announced their fifth album, Ill at Ease, which will be out May 9 via Born Losers Records. This is their first album in three years and it was co-produced by the band’s Matthew Flegel and Scott Munro.

“The well of dark things to write about seemingly has not dried up, and lyrically, it’s where I still tend to draw from,” Flegel says of Ill at Ease‘s themes. “Draining all my anxieties into a song is often the only way I can get through a day. Some songs exist in a world with barren plains of burnt earth, covered in a dust of shame, dread, death, where all the things I love are things that kill me. Some come from the perspective of another distant world, looking skyward into a science fiction ocean of space, solitude, slight hope. Sometimes I’m looking around at the world that we live in now with incredulity, hilariously dissatisfied with how it’s all turned out, and assuming that it can’t be long before it’s all over. Some songs are just a reflection of me looking down at my feet while I trudge along wondering what I’m doing with myself, and if the ground is going to fall out from underneath me at any given moment.”

The first single from the album is “Focus,” and while Preoccupations’ dark postpunk sound is still here, this is a little shinier than you might be used to. Flegel says, “Focus…or the lack thereof. Shame and regret: waking up with it, not being able to sleep because of it, and finally falling asleep and having nightmares about it. I put myself a thousand years in the future with these same feelings. While having so many better things to be worried about, as the world falls apart, still finding it impossible to look past meaningless misgivings.” Watch the video below.

Preoccupations will be on tour this summer and play NYC’s Bowery Ballroom on June 27. Tickets for all dates go on sale Friday, February 14 at 10 AM local time.

Ill at Ease
1. Focus
2. Bastards
3. Ill At Ease
4. Retrograde
5. Andromeda
6. Panic
7. Sken
8. Krem2

PREOCCUPATIONS TOUR DATES
05/22/25 Montréal, QC @Bar Le Ritz PDB
05/23/25 Ottawa, ON @The 27 Club
05/24/25 Toronto, ON @Lee’s Palace
05/27/25 Detroit, MI @Lager House
05/31/25 Chicago, IL @The Empty Bottle
06/01/25 Minneapolis, @MN 7th St Entry
06/04/25 Calgary, AB @Commonwealth
06/06/25 Vancouver, BC @Wise Hall
06/07/25 Seattle, WA @Madame Lou’s
06/08/25 Portland, OR @Polaris Hall
06/10/25 San Francisco, CA @Rickshaw Stop
06/12/25 Los Angeles, CA @Lodge Room
06/13/25 San Diego, CA @Casbah
06/17/25 Austin, TX @Parish
06/18/25 Denton, TX @Rubber Gloves
06/20/25 Nashville, TN @The Blue Room-Third Man Records
06/21/25 Atlanta, GA @The Masquerade(Purgatory)
06/22/25 Raleigh, NC @Kings
06/24/25 Washington, DC @Songbyrd Record Cafe
06/25/25 Philadelphia, PA @Johnny Brenda’s
06/27/25 New York, NY @Bowery Ballroom
06/29/25 Cambridge, MA @Middle East Upstairs