The Lemonheads announce ‘Love Chant’, the first album of original material in nearly two decades

After years of writing, wandering, and starting over, Evan Dando returns with Love Chant (out via Fire Records on October 24th) — the first Lemonheads studio album in nearly two decades. Long in the works and shaped by shifting geographies and a cast of trusted collaborators, it’s a bold, melodic reaffirmation of one of alternative rock’s most distinctive voices.

Now based in Brazil, where much of the album was recorded, Dando’s relocation in recent years has offered a quiet shift in perspective — a chance to reset, reconnect, and finally bring these songs into focus. The result is a record that sounds both fresh and familiar: rooted in the hallmarks of The Lemonheads’ best work, yet expanded by years of lived experience and new surroundings.

Arriving this autumn alongside Dando’s memoir, Rumours Of My Demise (out via Faber on November 6th), Love Chant, produced by Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Apollo Nove, draws together old friends and new allies. J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Juliana Hatfield, and Tom Morgan (as co-writer for ‘Deep End’) rejoin the fold, alongside producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Antony and the Johnsons), Nashville’s Erin Rae, John Strohm of the Blake Babies co-wrote and played guitar on “Togetherness” and Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond — a songwriter and performer on the swirling psych-folk gem “Roky.” Adam Green of cult New York favourites The Moldy Peaches also contributes as co-writer on the loose-limbed country detour “Wild Thing.”

Lead single “In The Margin” is a classic Dando composition: half-broken, half-beautiful, wrapped around a melody that disarms before it detonates.

Evan: “I wanted to have a riffy song, so I wrote riffs all over it. The body of the song was Marciana’s (Marciana Jones). It’s like a full-on 8th grade girl revenge song: ‘Stupidly I left the escape plans out so they could find my way.’”

“The Key Of Victory” is all slow motion and soft shadows — a modal, meditative piece anchored by Apollo Nove’s winding guitar and Erin Rae’s spectral harmonies. Written with David Ashby (Rum Shebeen), its vocal was recorded at Abbey Road.

Evan: “It’s quiet, it’s bitchin’. It’s pretty and it’s modal. I was trying to do like a Street Hassle vibe, you know?”

“Cell Phone Blues” jolts with jittery energy and a deadpan smile, full of jangling riffs and quiet fury, while “58 Second Song” delivers western swing and barstool melancholy with classic Dando flair. “Deep End” — co-written with Tom Morgan — is pure propulsion, lit up by an explosive J Mascis solo.

The title track “Love Chant” pulses with Modern Lovers-like insistence, and “Togetherness Is All I’m After” opens with a wallop before dissolving into a final whispered plea: “Baby, don’t blow it.”

Over the past few years, The Lemonheads’ influence has only deepened. Artists like MJ Lenderman, Courtney Barnett and Waxahatchee have all covered Dando’s songs, praising the emotional clarity, melodic instinct, and wry intimacy that define his writing. That resonance across generations makes Love Chant feel like more than a return — it’s a reminder of what made this band matter in the first place.

Photos by Gareth Jones.

‘Love Chant’ is out 24th October. Available in Classic Black Vinyl, White Vinyl, Yellow Vinyl, Blue Vinyl (Rough Trade Exclusive), Picture Disc (Fire Webshop + Bandcamp exclusive – pictured) and CD.

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