Mei Semones's new video has her working a Tokyo convenience store by day and turning into a guitar-obsessed werewolf at night. It's the first look at Howl, her second album, which lands Jan. 15 and is her first release for Verve and Interscope after her 2025 debut Animaru on Bayonet.
The jump is a big one, Stereogum says, calling it “a major leap from Bayonet” and noting that it named her an Artist to Watch after the debut. The title track, out now, opens with a theatrical whisper: “Even if I give my everything it's not enough.” The video was directed in Tokyo by Takuto Shimpo, and she says the concept, a convenience-store worker by day and guitar-obsessed werewolf at night, was hers.
Where ‘Howl’ comes from
Pitchfork says the title song was written after one Fourth of July in Brooklyn, when fireworks over her block set off a chorus of dog howls. She turned that into an artist's statement.
Sometimes making music feels like howling into the universe. I make music because I like it, because it feels instinctual—but it also connects me to people close and far. I like to think of this music as my howl.
Mei Semones, in a statement, Pitchfork
The 11-track album's list mixes English and Japanese titles: “Howl,” “2 Hands,” “Chichibu,” “Towards Manhattan,” “Korokke,” “Kira Kira” and the Japanese-titled “素直になりたい,” among others.
The tour
Her North American headlining run starts Feb. 24, 2027 at the Sinclair in Boston, with Aron! supporting on the early dates, and works through Portland, Maine, Montréal, Toronto, her hometown of Ann Arbor, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York's Webster Hall on March 6 before a second leg that starts April 9 at the 9:30 Club in Washington and moves through the South, Texas, the West Coast and the Midwest. It ends May 8 at Spirit Hall in Pittsburgh. Before that, she plays a one-off at New York's Lincoln Center on Oct. 15, per Stereogum's date list.
Why it matters
HowlMei SemonesListen on Apple Music
The label move is the story. Animaru, her coming-of-age debut, came out on Bayonet; Stereogum says the new title track “shows she's deserving of the ascent.” Pitchfork notes that she's taking the music from New York to Chicago, Los Angeles and her hometown on this tour. (For another rising act at the other end of the month, see Sienna Spiro's VMAs night and our rising artists roundup.)
What's next: Howl arrives Jan. 15, and the full tour date list runs through the spring.
- Album
- Howl, Jan. 15, 2027 (Verve/Interscope)
- Tracks
- 11
- Video
- Directed by Takuto Shimpo, shot in Tokyo
- Tour
- Feb. 24 (Boston) to May 8 (Pittsburgh), 2027
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
