Laura Jane Grace returns with surprise solo album Stay Alive

Stay Alive is Grace's follow up to her 2018 debut LP Bought To Rot, which she recorded with The Devouring Mothers.

The new album wasn't planned initially, and only came about because of the coronavirus pandemic. Before that, she was planning to record a new LP with Against Me!​. Grace says, "We came home from the Against Me! tour we were on in March, and right before we left, we had been in the studio working on songs, and I had been working on them for months prior."

She continues, "I sat around for a month-and-a-half at a home just being shell-shocked being like, ‘What the fuck happened and what the fuck is happening with the world?’ As I started to get my bearings, I just came to the realisation that waiting was going to kill the record and kill the songs. I spent two years working on all these songs, and the idea of throwing them away didn’t sit well with me. But then I was like, ‘What am I waiting for?’ All I have to do is adjust my scope. I can sit here on my fucking ass and do nothing, or I can work."

Grace recorded the album on analog tape with Steve Albini at Chicago's Electrical Audio over four days.

Speaking about the importance of releasing music during the pandemic, Grace explains, "By putting the songs out, that puts the label in work, that puts a photographer in work, that puts a graphic designer in work, that puts a merch company in work, that keeps it alive. You hear on the news every day about people losing their jobs and everything collapsing, and I want to fight against that. The only way I can think to fight against that is to work."

Grace adds, "I just want to put this out because it makes me feel alive and it’s giving me something better than sitting here losing my mind while the world falls apart. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about what you do. Just stay alive."

Tracklist:

1. The Swimming Pool Song
2. The Calendar Song
3. Shelter In Place
4. Return To Oz
5. The Mountain Song SuperNatural Possession
6. Hanging Tree
7. Please Leave
8. Why Kant I Be You?
9. Ice Cream Song
10. The Magic Point
11. Blood & Thunder
12. So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Fuck Off
13. Old Friend (Stay Alive)