Maxwell Announces New Album NIGHT, Drops New Song “Shame”: Listen

Maxwell has announced that his new album NIGHT is out in 2019 via Columbia. He’s also shared the lead single “Shame.” Listen to it below. The new album will be the final installment of his BLACKSUMMERSNIGHT trilogy that kicked off in 2009 with BLACKsummers'night and continued with 2016’s blackSUMMERS’night. Maxwell said of the song in a statement:

"Shame” is a modern love song. Not just romantic love, but love for self and others. Social media has created an alternate world where people watch everything you do, including your failures. They even often feel a sense of joy in your pain. This creates a barrier to real intimacy because we’re preoccupied with appearances; with measuring up to what society thinks we should be, how we should look, what we should have and what we should aspire to. The song is about removing that mask of expectation and letting go of the shame of being real and vulnerable. The shadow of shame can only be broken when we unveil ourselves, and recognize that we that we are all human—flawed yet perfect, broken yet stronger with each obstacle.

Maxwell is currently on his “50 Intimate Nights Live” tour that began on September 27 and will take him across North America. In August, Maxwell announced a 20th anniversary re-release of his 1998 album Embrya.

Read Pitchfork’s Sunday Review on Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite.