Sufjan Stevens will never come through on that joke he made about writing an album for each state. Mostly because he’s set his sights on something a little…bigger. Along with Bryce Dessner of The National, composer Nico Muhly and drummer James McAlister, the singer-songwriter is releasing a project focusing on all of the planets in our solar system. The supergroup have already shared the single “Saturn” — the first single from the project dubbed Planetarium — and today the group have shared another single that’s a little closer to home.
“Mercury” plays a bit like a song from the Chainsmokers new album Memories…Do Not Open, but with a cosmic bit of piano improv where pop’s favorite bros would place a drop. Maybe that’s just the lyric video’s scribble aesthetics talking, but we can’t help but feel like this is a song that that mega-successful group would make given a few more years to drift away from “#Selfie” and into their feelings.
In addition to the new track, the group have a revealed a small string of tour dates. After kicking off with a show in Paris, the band will come home and stick to the coasts for shows in Oakland, Los Angles and New York. Check out those tour dates below:
07/10 –- Paris, FR @ Philharmonie de Paris
07/18 –- Brooklyn, NY @ Celebrate Brooklyn! at Prospect Park
07/20 –- Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
07/21 –- Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
Planetarium is out June 9.