Alabama Shakes Announce New Album ‘I Must Be Dreaming’

Alabama Shakes are officially back with their first new album in more than a decade. I Must Be Dreaming marks a major new chapter for the Grammy-winning trio – bringing fresh music and a renewed creative vision. It’s a comeback that promises to be one of the band’s most significant yet.

A press release from Alabama Shakes’ team announced that the new album, I Must Be Dreaming, arrives August 28 via Island Records.

The announcement arrives alongside the news of a new single “I Feel Hope Coming,” available everywhere Friday, July 10.

Watch the album trailer:

Produced by Alabama Shakes alongside six-time GRAMMY® Award winner Shawn Everett, I Must Be Dreaming expands on the fearless musical exploration that defined the band’s landmark Sound & Color. Recorded in Nashville at Sound Emporium Studios and Blackbird Studio, the album leans into a richly textured, psychedelic soul sound while exploring love, mortality, human connection, and the increasingly surreal contradictions of modern life.

The album’s upcoming single, “I Feel Hope Coming,” captures the heart of that journey. Built around luminous textures, childlike harmonies, and an understated optimism, the song is a tender yet galvanizing call to resist systems that dehumanize and move toward a future rooted in collective care.

“This younger generation makes me feel hopeful because they can see through all the political lies—that song’s about holding onto that hope, and refusing to give up,” says Brittany Howard on the track. Heath Fogg adds, “I’m really happy that song exists. It came from such a joyful moment of collaboration, and exemplifies everything I love about this band being reborn.”

“I Feel Hope Coming” follows the acclaimed singles “Another Life” and “American Dream,” each revealing a different facet of I Must Be Dreaming. While “Another Life” explored the enduring nature of love and “American Dream” confronted the unraveling of once-shared ideals, the new single offers a hopeful counterbalance, completing an emotional portrait of a record that embraces uncertainty while insisting that hope, love, and community remain worth fighting for.

The album’s title speaks directly to that duality. “There’s a double meaning to it,” Howard explains. “It could be saying, ‘I must be dreaming, because the world is so fucking crazy right now.’ But it could also mean, ‘I must be dreaming, because the world is so incredibly beautiful.’ Both those things can be true at once.”

Written organically after the band reunited in late 2024, I Must Be Dreaming emerged from an unusually open-ended creative process that allowed songs to evolve in real time. Rediscovering the chemistry that first made Alabama Shakes one of rock’s most singular bands, Brittany Howard, Heath Fogg, and Zac Cockrell embraced spontaneity in the studio, expanding their sonic palette with instruments such as flute, harpsichord, and sitar, as well as richly layered vocal arrangements. The result is their most adventurous and emotionally resonant album to date.

Pre-order/pre-save the album HERE.

In support of I Must Be Dreaming, Alabama Shakes are currently in the midst of an extensive worldwide headline tour spanning North America and Europe. Highlights include appearances at major festivals, the band’s first UK and European headline run in more than a decade, a landmark debut at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on September 2, four co-headline performances with Tedeschi Trucks Band, and select stadium dates supporting Zach Bryan. The tour concludes September 26 at Ohana Festival.

Since emerging from Athens, Alabama, Alabama Shakes have become one of the defining rock bands of the last decade. Their Platinum-certified debut Boys & Girls introduced the world to “Hold On,” while 2015’s Sound & Color debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earned three GRAMMY® Awards—including Best Alternative Music Album—and cemented the band’s reputation for fearless musical evolution. Hailed by The New York Times as an “unstoppable force of nature” and praised by Pitchfork for “[inventing] their own genesis,” Alabama Shakes now begin a powerful new chapter with I Must Be Dreaming.

I MUST BE DREAMING TRACKLIST:

1. Tea Time
2. Another Life
3. Garden
4. I Feel Hope Coming
5. Time
6. Friends
7. Easy
8. How Love’s Supposed To Go
9. Waist Deep 
10. American Dream
11. Tied To You 

Alabama Shakes TOUR DATES 2026:

7/7  Lucca, IT           Summer Festival

7/9  Lisbon, PT           NOS Alive Festival

7/10 Bilbao, ES            BBK Live

7/11 Madrid, ES           Noches del Botánico•

7/24 Tacoma, WA          Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park+

7/25 Eugene, OR          Autzen Stadium^

7/26 Vancouver, BC        Freedom Mobile Arch+

7/28 Boise, ID           Idaho Botanical Garden: Outlaw Field+

7/29 Salt Lake City, UT       Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre+

7/31 Jackson Hole, WY      Snow King Mountain+

8/1  Jackson Hole, WY       Snow King Mountain+

8/21 Highland Park, IL       Ravinia Festival=

8/22 Indianapolis, IN       Ruoff Music Center#

8/23 Maryland Heights, MO   Hollywood Casino Amphitheater#

8/25 Grand Rapids, MI        Acrisure Amphitheater#

8/26 Cincinnati, OH         Riverbend Music Center#

8/28 Minneapolis, MN      Surly Brewing Festival Field%

8/29 Minneapolis, MN       Surly Brewing Festival Field%

8/30 Madison, WI         Breese Stevens Field%

9/1  Bridgeport, CT          Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater%

9/2  New York, NY          Radio City Music Hall%

9/4  Bethel, NY             Bethel Woods Center for the Arts@

9/5  Lenox, MA             Tanglewood@

9/6  Shelburne, VT         Concerts on The Green$

9/15 Montreal, QC          MTELUS$

9/16 Ottawa, ON           CityFolk Festival

9/18 East Aurora, NY        Borderland Music Festival

9/19 Dover, DE             The Woodlands^

9/25 Santa Barbara, CA      Santa Barbara Bowl*

9/26 Dana Point, CA         Ohana Festival

• With Special Guest Joel Culpepper

+ With Special Guests Billy Allen + The Pollies

= With Special Guest Liam Kazar

# Co-Headline with Tedeschi Trucks Band

% With Special Guest Hannah Cohen

@ With Very Special Guest Mavis Staples

$ With Special Guest Emily King

^ Supporting Zach Bryan

* With Special Guest Tyler Ballgame

About Alabama Shakes

Alabama Shakes have quietly emerged as the 21st century’s preeminent rock powerhouse whose uncanny brew of alternative, blues, soul, and roots is as intoxicating as it is inimitable. The trio—Brittany Howard [vocals, guitar], Heath Fogg [guitar], and Zac Cockrell [bass]—have garnered four GRAMMY® Awards, piled up billions of streams, reached multiplatinum heights, and performed to sold-out arenas and amphitheaters far and wide. Rising out of Athens, AL, their full-length debut Boys & Girls went Platinum, boosted by the likes of the Gold-certified “Hold On”—which Rolling Stone named “The #1 Best Song of 2012.” In its wake, the seminal Platinum-certified Sound & Color bowed in at #1 on the Billboard 200.

It received a GRAMMY® Award in“Best Alternative Music Album” while the Platinum-certified “Don’t Wanna Fight” took home “Best Rock Performance” and “Best Rock Song.” It’s no wonder Pitchfork touted the record among “The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s.” Featured on The American Epic Sessions in 2017, “Killer Diller Blues” earned the GRAMMY® for “Best American Roots Performance.” Alabama Shakes have become firmly embedded within the fabric of culture, contributing music to Academy® Award-winning films such as Silver Linings Playbook and Dallas Buyers Club and performing everywhere from The White House to SNL. More than a decade later, the trio returns with I Must Be Dreaming—their most expansive, adventurous, and emotionally revealing work to date, balancing psychedelic soul with deeply human reflections on love, mortality, hope, and the strange beauty of modern life.