Last year, Michelle Branch celebrated the 20th anniversary of her debut, The Spirit Room. Now, she's announced the release of a brand-new album -- her first since 2017's Hopeless Romantic -- called The Trouble with Fever.
The album, produced by her husband, Patrick Carney of The Black Keys, is due September 16, and she'll kick off a tour in support of the project on September 12 in Nashville, TN.
The first single and video, "I'm a Man," is out now. The chorus of the story is about men "struggling to navigate in a post-#MeToo world of toxic masculinity," Michelle explains, while the verses are about "the struggles that women have been dealing with, really, since Eve bit the apple."
Michelle asks rhetorically, "Why are nearly all mass shooters male? Why do I need my husband’s written permission in 2022 to get my tubes tied? Why do American women have fewer reproductive rights than our grandmothers? Why don’t we get paid as much as men? Why do I have to teach my daughters not to walk alone at night? And so on and so on."
"Yet we carry on with grit and grace like we always have because we have no other choice," she adds.
In the chorus, Michelle sings, "I'm a man/And I'm out of control/And I can't help myself/And I can't let it go." In the verses, she continues, "I'm so tired of being told by everybody/That I can't make decisions 'bout my own damn body."
A pre-sale for tickets starts July 18; you can sign up at Michelle's website for access. The general on-sale tickets will be available July 22.