Alabama Shakes have returned from a seven-year break to active recording and touring. The blues-soul-rock ensemble, which rose to prominence with their 2012 debut Boys & Girls and 2015 follow-up Sound & Color, took an extended hiatus beginning in 2017 due to physical and creative exhaustion despite achieving significant commercial and critical success.
The band reunited for an unannounced December 2024 performance at a 1,000-capacity venue in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to support a local friend’s fundraiser. Following that show, members discovered they still shared musical chemistry and decided to pursue further collaboration. Since then, they have performed increasingly larger venues, surprising even themselves with the scale of demand for their return. Singer Brittany Howard has attributed part of this renewed momentum to their April 2026 single American Dream, a gospel-influenced track addressing contemporary American social and political concerns. The song gained significant traction on social media platforms, positioning the band back into cultural conversations around protest music.
The upcoming third studio album, I Must Be Dreaming, represents a stylistic evolution from their previous work. Rather than the retro-soul approach that defined their earlier releases, the new material incorporates more ethereal and psychedelic elements, with songs exploring relationship dynamics, national conditions, and modern life’s complexities. Opening track Tea Time features flutes as a central instrumentation choice, while other songs blend R&B with psychedelic rock influences. Howard characterized the album as a continuation of the band’s established trajectory of sonic experimentation while maintaining thematic coherence across their discography.
The band members, who attended the same high school in Alabama, have attributed their longevity to mutual care and shared artistic vision rather than external pressure. Howard emphasized that their decision to reunite felt natural and unforced, emerging from wanting to explore what each member had developed musically during the break. The album will arrive on 28 August through Island Records.